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eBook details

• Title: State Missouri v. William T. Johnson
• Author : Missouri Court of Appeals St. Louis District
• Release Date : January 01, 1977
• Genre: Law,Books,Professional & Technical,
• Pages : * pages
• Size : 59 KB

Description

Defendant William T. Johnson was convicted of murder in the second degree and the punishment assessed by the jury of thirty
years imprisonment was imposed by the trial court. Defendant was with a group of young men who were approached by another
group in the hallway of Sumner High School in St. Louis on March 18, 1975. This encounter erupted into a gun-firing melee
resulting in the death of Stephen Goods. Defendant does not challenge the sufficiency of the evidence to support the conviction
but urges four points of error which, he argues, require the judgment of conviction and assessment of punishment to be reversed.
We affirm the judgment in all respects. Initially defendant contends that he was denied the effective a-sistance of counsel guaranteed to him by the state and federal
constitutions when the trial court denied defense counsel's motion for leave to withdraw from the case due to an alleged conflict
of interest. Robert Lee was among those endoresed by the State as a prosecution witness; and on the second day of trial, well
into the State's case, proceedings were held outside the hearing of the jury to determine whether Lee would testify or choose
to invoke his right to remain silent. At this time the attorney who had represented Lee in a prior, unrelated criminal charge,
to which Lee had entered his plea of guilty, appeared with Lee and apparently advised him of his right to remain silent. This
attorney was a member of the public defender's office, as was the attorney who represented defendant. When it became apparent
that Lee would invoke his right to remain silent, the assistant prosecutor informed the court that the State would not call
Lee before the jury. Defendant's attorney then moved to withdraw from the case, due to the alleged conflict of interest situation
which resulted from another member of the public defender's office advising a potential prosecution witness. This motion was
denied and the cause proceeded. Lee was not called as a witness and neither his participation in the incident nor his potential
testimony was ever suggested by the record or by counsel on appeal.

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