Court Opinion

ID: 9652940
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 17:35:47.85074+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:12:55.332859
License: Public Domain

SEILER, Presiding Judge,
concurring.
I concur in the affirmance of the judgment, but this is another case, as were State v. Holmes, 609 S.W.2d 132 (Mo.1980) and State v. Hudgins, 612 S.W.2d 769 (Mo.1981), where in order to enable us to carry out our statutory duty of determining whether death sentences are “excessive or disproportionate to the penalty imposed in similar cases, considering both the crime and the defendant”, § 565.014.3(3),' RSMo 1978, our opinion must contain a statement of the facts, even though the penalty assessed was life without parole or probation for fifty years rather than death.
The case before us involves three counts of capital murder. The state sought the death penalty but the jury, while finding defendant guilty of capital murder on each of the three counts, rejected the death penalty as to the first two counts, imposing a sentence of life imprisonment without parole or probation for fifty years as to Count I and Count II, but was unable to agree on the punishment as to Count III. The trial court, then per § 565.006.2, imposed sentence of imprisonment for life without parole or probation for fifty years on Count III.
In accord with the principle of keeping a record of the facts of these cases as the law is built up in this area, the following condensation is given of what was before this jury, which in two instances chose to assess the punishment at life without parole for fifty years and rejected the death penalty, and which, in the third instance, was unable to agree on punishment. The jury could have found from the evidence the following facts in addition to those set forth in the second paragraph of the principal opinion: defendant, a nineteen year old black male, using a .22 caliber pistol, murdered three black victims. He shot James Harris (Count II) apparently because he wanted a gun that Harris had. Harris was shot once in the back and once in the head. His sister, Mrs. Vicki Kanion, a medical student (Count I), came running into the room where her brother had been shot and defendant shot her in the head. Mrs. Kan-ion’s seven year old son, Ernest Booker (Count III) came out from somewhere and called out defendant’s name. Defendant said, “I am going to have to kill you too,” after which the little boy crawled under a table and begged for his life. Defendant said, “Come here. I’ve got a surprise for you.” He then shot the little boy in the head.