Court Opinion

ID: 9666753
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 01:26:54.864897+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:15:32.544435
License: Public Domain

DONNELLY, Judge,
dissenting.
The Constitution of Missouri provides “[t]hat in criminal prosecutions the accused shall have the right to appear and defend, in person and by counsel * * Mo. Const, art. I, § 18(a) (emphasis added). This constitutional provision was intended to assure a person accused in Missouri “that fair and impartial trial guaranteed by the letter and the spirit of the Constitution and laws of our State.” State v. Bunton, 312 Mo. 655, 662, 280 S.W. 1040, 1042 (1926).1
The essential issue in this case is whether appellant was accorded a fair and impartial trial.
I would reverse the judgment and remand the cause with directions that the trial judge review the transcript of the trial, consider the evidence adduced at the evidentiary hearing, and, on the basis of all the facts and circumstances of the case, decide the issue by stating only whether, in his opinion, the accused was denied a fair and impartial trial. If aggrieved by that determination, the accused could appeal and the entire record could again be reviewed and a decision rendered as to whether the conclusion of the trial judge was clearly erroneous.
I respectfully dissent.

. This right has been protected in Missouri since its territorial days. See Digest of the Laws of the Missouri Territory, 1818, Crimes and Misdemeanors, § 35.