Court Opinion

ID: 9677096
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 05:43:22.20069+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:18:50.657546
License: Public Domain

PATRICIA BRECKENRIDGE, Judge,
concurring in part and concurring in result.
While I concur with the principal opinion’s conclusion that the imposition of the *545death penalty on Terrance L. Anderson in this case was neither excessive nor disproportionate, I do not agree that only factually similar cases resulting in a death sentence should be considered when conducting the proportionality review required by section 565.035.3.1
Section 565.035.3 requires consideration of all factually similar cases in which the death penalty was submitted to the jury, including those resulting in a sentence of life imprisonment without the possibility of probation or parole. The legislature directed in section 565.035.6 that records be compiled of “all cases in which the sentence of death or life imprisonment without probation or parole was imposed.” This plain language shows that the legislature intended factually similar cases with sentences of life imprisonment to be considered in conducting proportionality review. As Judge Stith’s concurring opinion concurring in result in Deck noted, “It would be pointless for section 565.035.6 to require this Court to accumulate records of cases in which life imprisonment is imposed if life imprisonment cases are inherently dissimilar to this Court’s proportionality review under the statute.” State v. Deck, 303 S.W.3d 527, 559 (Mo. banc 2010) (Stith, J., concurring).
Because the principal opinion in this case considered only factually similar cases that resulted in the imposition of the death penalty, I believe the principal opinion incorrectly applies the law. Instead, it is necessary when conducting proportionality review to only not consider similar cases in which the death penalty was imposed but also to consider similar cases in which the defendant received a sentence of life im-' prisonment without the possibility of probation or parole.
Proportionality Review
Because the proportionality review required by section 565.035.3 involves comparing the factual similarities of cases, a more detailed factual background than is set forth in the principal opinion is required. The basic facts of this case are as follows:2
Abbey Rainwater and Terrance Anderson began dating in 1996. When Abbey became pregnant, her parents invited Mr. Anderson to live with them. After he moved in, Mr. Anderson became abusive toward Abbey, and her parents asked him to move out.
After the birth of their child, Mr. Anderson violently assaulted Abbey on two occasions. During the second assault, Mr. Anderson told Abbey that if she told anyone what he had done to her, he would kill her family, he would make her watch him kill their baby, and then he would kill her and himself. The next morning, Abbey obtained a restraining order against Mr. Anderson and notified him of the order over the telephone. She told him that he could not see her and that his visitation with the baby would be arranged through the court. Mr. Anderson then said he knew what he had to do. Late that afternoon, he obtained a handgun.
That evening, Mr. Anderson went to the home of Abbey’s parents and kicked in the door. Abbey’s mother told Abbey to run. Abbey ran to a neighbor’s house, where she contacted the police; her 10-year-old sister stopped fleeing shortly after she got outdoors. Two of Abbey’s friends, who were also at the Rainwater residence at *546the time of the break-in, stayed in the house.
Mr. Anderson approached Abbey’s mother Debbie Rainwater, who was holding the baby. Mr. Anderson pointed the gun at her, telling her she was going to die. Ms. Rainwater got down on her knees and begged for her life. Mr. Anderson placed the gun against the back of her head and fired. The bullet killed her instantly. Mr. Anderson then grabbed one of Abbey’s friends, who had just witnessed the killing, went outside with her, and told her to yell for Abbey and the others to come out. No one came out of hiding.
While Mr. Anderson was in front of the house, Abbey’s sister, who had heard the gunshot, went back into the house and heard the baby crying. She found her mother’s dead body lying on top of the baby. She lifted her mother’s body, picked up the baby and attempted to hide with her in the house. However, before Abbey’s sister could hide, Mr. Anderson found her and took the baby.
Mr. Anderson and the sister walked to the front yard. Mr. Anderson pointed the gun at the baby’s head and yelled that he would shoot the baby if Abbey did not come out. At that time, Abbey’s father Stephen pulled up to the house in his vehicle. Mr. Anderson, still holding the baby, approached Mr. Rainwater and began talking to him. He then shot Mr. Rainwater in the forehead, killing him. He took Abbey’s sister and the baby into the house and ordered the sister to search for survivors. Even though she saw one of Abbey’s friends hiding, she did not tell Mr. Anderson. Eventually, police officers arrived at the residence and surrounded the house. At one point, Mr. Anderson appeared at a window and held the baby in front of him as a human shield while he waved his handgun in the direction of the officers. After some time, Mr. Anderson surrendered and was placed under arrest and taken into custody.
A jury convicted Mr. Anderson of the murders of both Mr. and Ms. Rainwater and found his punishment should be death for killing of Ms. Rainwater. As part of its assessment of the death sentence, the jury found two statutory aggravating circumstances. First, the jury found that Debbie’s murder was committed while Mr. Anderson defendant was engaged in the commission of another unlawful homicide. Section 565.032.2(2). Second, the jury found that Debbie’s murder involved depravity of mind because Mr. Anderson killed her as part of his plan to kill more than one person, exhibiting a callous disregard for the sanctity of human life. Section 565.032.2(7).
In this appeal of his death sentence, Mr. Anderson does not claim that his sentence of death was excessive or disproportionate, nor does he cite any cases demonstrating that his sentence was excessive or disproportionate. Despite his failure to raise the issue, this Court is required, under section 565.035.3, to conduct a proportionality review sua sponte by considering other factually similar cases, including those that resulted in a sentence of life imprisonment without the possibility of probation or parole. As such, this Court should consider cases in which multiple murders were committed with depravity of mind and in which the jury nevertheless decided to impose a sentence of life imprisonment.
In Deck, the concurring opinion of Judge Stith analyzed many such cases. Consequently, this opinion utilizes many of the same decisions examined in that opinion in addition to others. In most cases involving multiple homicides that resulted in a life sentence, more than one person was implicated in the crime, and there was conflicting evidence as to who actually *547committed the murders. State v. Ramsey, 874 S.W.2d 414 (Mo.App.1994) (prosecution lacked direct evidence that defendant actually shot the victims during the commission of a felony carried out by defendant and his uncle); State v. Jennings, 815 S.W.2d 434 (Mo.App.1991) (multiple co-conspirators accused each other as the actual killers in multiple homicide); State v. Merchant, 791 S.W.2d 840 (Mo.App.1990) (defendant claiming emotional disturbance voluntarily turned himself in to police after committing the second-degree murder of his ex-wife and the first-degree murder of her boyfriend); State v. Murray, 778 S.W.2d 730 (Mo.App.1989) (unclear which of two co-defendants committed the two murders in the course of a joint felony); State v. Harper, 713 S.W.2d 7 (Mo.App.1986) (credibility of co-defendant who claimed defendant shot victims was undermined by plea deal he made with state; also, testimony of surviving victim identifying defendant was possibly contrary to co-defendant’s testimony that defendant just shot once and was unsure if he hit anyone); State v. Clark, 711 S.W.2d 928 (Mo.App.1986) (defendant did not confess to the crime and presented evidence that one of two murders occurred during a struggle for his gun); State v. Downs, 593 S.W.2d 535 (Mo. banc 1980) (defendant without prior convictions denied involvement in the murders, while statements of his co-defendants inconsistently implicated him).
While the cases above are factually similar to Mr. Anderson’s case, they are distinguishable in that most involved multiple defendants and evidence that was uncertain as to which of those defendants actually committed the murders.3 This is a key distinction from the case of Mr. Anderson, who was clearly the sole perpetrator of the crime, as clear evidence demonstrated that he alone committed the murders. It is also important to consider that Mr. Anderson killed Ms. Rainwater as part of his plan to kill more than one person, which the jury found constituted a callous disregard for the sanctity of human life. In fact, five other lives, including that of his three-month-old child, were endangered during his killing spree.
Although I believe the principal opinion applied an erroneous standard in conducting its proportionality review by not reviewing similar life-imprisonment cases, a review of those cases does not change the conclusion that Mr. Anderson’s sentence was not disproportionate or excessive to the sentences imposed in similar eases. Accordingly, I concur in the result reached by the principal opinion in its proportionality review and concur in the remainder of the opinion.

. Unless otherwise noted, all statutory references are to RSMo 2000.

. These facts are taken from this Court's opinion in Mr. Anderson's original direct appeal, State v. Anderson, 79 S.W.3d 420, 427-28 (Mo. banc 2002).

. While I find the factually similar cases analyzed above to be distinguishable from the present case, this opinion nevertheless cites them because section 565.035.5 requires this Court include in its decision "a reference to those similar cases which it took into consideration.”