Smith v. State

BENTON, Judge.

Samuel D. Smith appeals the dismissal of his Rule 29.15 motion, arguing that it can be filed late due to abandonment by appointed post-conviction counsel. The Court of Appeals, Western District, transferred the appeal to this Court prior to opinion because the post-conviction motion challenges a conviction where the punishment imposed is death. Mo. Const, art. V, § 10. Affirmed.

I

On July 20, 1988, Smith was convicted of first degree murder for stabbing a fellow inmate to death in the Missouri state penitentiary in January 1987. The trial judge imposed a sentence of death on…