Court Opinion

ID: 9646868
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 13:14:06.810807+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:11:42.838754
License: Public Domain

PARRISH, Judge,
concurring.
I concur. Recently, in State v. Hernandez, 815 S.W.2d 67, 71 (Mo.App.1991), this court made the following observation:
It is unfortunate when prosecuting officials with otherwise strong evidence in support of a conviction choose to go beyond the legitimate evidence that is available to them and pursue other inflammatory and irrelevant triviality in quest of conviction. When this occurs, the result of appellate review is assured.
Although the facts of this case are not similar to the facts in Hernandez, the warning sounded there is equally apropos. Prosecuting officials have the duty to prosecute cases with vigor, but they have the duty to do so within the bounds of rules of evidence and within the procedural boundaries prescribed for the conduct of criminal trials. That was not done in this case. I concur in the determination that the case must be reversed for the reasons stated in the principal opinion. I write this separate opinion only to attempt to amplify the warning sounded in Hernandez.