Court Opinion

ID: 9660076
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 22:03:20.074483+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:14:14.415911
License: Public Domain

WELLIVER, Judge,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent. The principal opinion treats this case as though it were here on appeal, which it is not, and in my opinion, glosses over our statutory duty to make examination as to proportionality of the sentence. § 565.035.3(3), RSMo 1986. I concur in the separate dissenting opinion of Blackmar, J. and the separate dissenting opinion of Donnelly, J.
The record before us is a documentary of defendant-“appellant’s” exposure to and his failure to respond to almost every known social program of this society during the first almost seventeen years of his life. Regardless of the current belief of many that the death penalty is a deterrent to crime, utilization of the death penalty in cases such as this only serves to bury and cover up the failures of our existing social and penal programs. The death penalty was never intended to punish crimes committed by juveniles and is totally disproportionate to the punishment of similar crimes committed by those of similar age. See cases cited in separate opinions of Donnelly, J. and Blackmar, J. The punishment should be reduced to life imprisonment.