Missouri Lawyers Media Missouri legal news and public notices

Where a claimant challenged the denial of benefits from the Second Injury Fund, arguing that exhibits showing that he was convicted of Social Security fraud were improperly admitted, the judgment is affirmed because the challenged exhibits were cumulative to the ...

Tagged with: Prior Convictions SIF Workers’ Compensation

Where a defendant, who was convicted of the attempted enticement of a child, argued that the trial court erred in denying his request to submit a jury instruction that required the jury to find that he knew the victim was ...

Tagged with: Attempted Enticement of Child Criminal Law jury instructions Knowledge of Age

Defendant was charged with statutory sodomy. Following several hours of deliberation, the jury reported that it was split 11-1 and could not come to a unanimous verdict. The trial court granted the state’s request to provide the “hammer instruction” to ...

Tagged with: Criminal Law Hammer Instruction Split Jury statutory sodomy

Where a defendant, who was required to register as a sex offender after he failed to report his Facebook accounts, claimed that his counsel was ineffective for failing to argue that the relevant Missouri statute was unconstitutional in light of ...

Tagged with: Criminal Law effectiveness of counsel Post-Conviction Relief sex offender registry

Father appealed from the termination of his parental rights to his daughter C.E.B. on the statutory grounds of neglect, after the trial court found father suffered from a mental condition and chemical dependency and had repeatedly failed to provide for ...

Tagged with: Domestic Relations Neglect Termination of Parental Rights Weight of Evidence

Defendant was found guilty of sexual abuse and felony attempted enticement of a child. At trial, the state offered two witnesses who testified that defendant had, years ago, offered them money to expose themselves to defendant. On appeal, defendant challenged ...

Tagged with: Admission of Prior Bad Acts Criminal Law Questioning of Family Member’s Prior Bad Acts sexual abuse

Movant, serving five concurrent prison terms for various sex crimes, moved for post-conviction relief alleging ineffective assistance of trial counsel, who chose to make a unitary rather than offense-specific defense that all three victims were lying and failed to request ...

Tagged with: Categorically Unreasonable Strategic Decisions Criminal Law ineffective assistance of counsel Post-Conviction Relief

Where a defendant in a DWI case argued that his trial counsel was ineffective for failing to call his doctor to testify about his illnesses and medication side effects, the testimony would not have provided a viable defense and the ...

Tagged with: Criminal Law effectiveness of counsel Post-Conviction Relief

Defendant was convicted of possession of controlled substances after police executed a search warrant on her home, finding a glass pipe with methamphetamine residue that witnesses claimed defendant used to smoke methamphetamine the night before. During her interrogation, defendant claimed ...

Tagged with: Criminal Law Evidence of Possession Possession of Controlled Substances Sufficiency Of Evidence

Where a defendant, who was sentenced to life without eligibility for parole for 50 years plus two life sentences for capital murder committed as a 16-year-old, sought habeas relief, State ex rel. Carr v. Wallace was applicable because the defendant ...

Tagged with: Criminal Law Habeas Relief life sentence

Where a juvenile challenged a delinquency judgment finding that he had made a second-degree terroristic threat, the evidence was sufficient for the court to assume jurisdiction over the juvenile for recklessly disregarding the risk of causing a school evacuation by ...

Tagged with: Delinquency Judgment Juvenile Law Sufficiency Of Evidence Terroristic Threat