Wednesday, October 1, 2014

State ex rel. Middleton v. Russell

Opinion issued
July 16, 2014


Link to Supreme Court of Missouri Opinion



On July 16, 2014, after 20 years and at least three stays of execution, a sharply divided Missouri Supreme Court issued a brief opinion rejecting John C. Middleton’s final attempt to evade the death penalty.[i]  Following two initially successful but eventually fruitless attempts to bypass the state’s Supreme Court by imploring the federal district court for the Eastern District of Missouri to stay his execution,[ii] on July 16 Middleton filed a writ of habeas corpus asserting that under the Eight Amendment he lacked the mental competence which the constitution requires for an inmate to be executed.[iii]  Relying on the United States Supreme Court’s Panetti v. Quarterman[iv] and Ford v. Wainwright[v] decisions, the majority held that Middleton had fallen well short of establishing that he was suffering from the sort of gross psychotic delusions that might have presented a constitutional bar to his execution.[vi]  The dissent, on the other hand, written by Justice Draper, and concurred in by Justices Stith and Teitelmann, strongly criticized what it perceived to be the gross violation of Middleton’s right to due process.[vii]  Justice Draper’s dissenting opinion insisted that the same psychiatric report viewed as inadequate by the majority was a sufficient predicate for establishing a threshold showing of incompetence.  Further, the dissent argued that Middleton had raised substantial unanswered concerns regarding the constitutionality of RSMo § 552.060, which governs the procedure for determining whether a condemned prisoner is competent to be executed.[viii] 

State v. Jackson

Opinion issued
June 24, 2014


Link to Supreme Court of Missouri Opinion



Denford Jackson was convicted by a jury of first-degree robbery and armed criminal action.[i] Jackson requested that the instruction for the lesser included offense of second degree robbery also be included in the instructions given to the jury pursuant to Section 556.046 of the Revised Statutes of Missouri.[ii] The trial court refused to give the instruction, holding there was no basis in the evidence for a reasonable juror to determine that the victim did not reasonably believe that Jackson held a gun to her back.[iii]  On appeal from the Circuit court of the City of St. Louis, the Supreme Court of Missouri reversed and remanded the case, holding that a jury member can always disbelieve all or any part of the evidence and so evidence never proves any element until a jury says it does.[iv]