# State v. Mallett

> Supreme Court of Missouri · July 14, 1987 · 732 S.W.2d 527

URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9676535

## Case

- **Full name:** STATE of Missouri, Respondent, v. Jerome MALLETT, Appellant
- **Court:** Supreme Court of Missouri
- **Decided:** July 14, 1987
- **Citations:** 732 S.W.2d 527
- **Precedential status:** Published
- **Opinion:** Dissent by Donnelly
- **Judges:** Billings, Higgins, Rendlen, Smith, Blackmar, Donnelly, Welliver, Robertson
- **Cited by:** 174 later opinions in the Frix Law Library

## Citator (automated)

- No negative treatment found by the automated citator. That is not the same as a confirmation that the case is good law; read the citing cases.
- Full citator and citing cases: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9676535

## How later opinions describe it (automated extraction)

- affirming trial court’s admission of detailed account of defendant’s participation in an armed robbery about one month before the commission of the charged first-degree murder of a police officer, emphasizing that “[w]ide latitude is generally allowed in the development of evi…

## Opinion text

*545 DONNELLY, Judge,
dissenting.
Whenever the death penalty is imposed in any case, “the sentence shall be reviewed on the record by the supreme court of Missouri” and this Court must determine whether such sentence “was imposed under the influence of passion, prejudice, or any other arbitrary factor * * § 565.035, RSMo 1986.
In Godfrey v. Georgia, 446 U.S. 420, 428 , 100 S.Ct. 1759, 1764 , 64 L.Ed.2d 398 (1980), the Court held “that if a State wishes to authorize capital punishment it has a constitutional responsibility to * * * apply its law in a manner that avoids the arbitrary and capricious infliction of the death penalty.” And the Court held that a death sentence cannot be permitted to stand when the circumstances under which it was imposed “create a substantial risk that the punishment will be inflicted in an arbitrary and capricious manner.” 446 U.S., at 427 , 100 S.Ct., at 1764 .
Given the circumstances in this case, I would set the judgment aside and resen-tence appellant to life imprisonment without eligibility for probation, parole, or release except by act of the governor.
I respectfully dissent.

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Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9676535. Public record. Not legal advice.