State v. Motley

I dissent from the majority opinion because I believe that statutorily mandated sentences to the extent that they deny the court the right to exercise its discretion to suspend either the imposition or execution of a sentence constitutes an intolerable usurpation of an inherent power of the court to grant probation.

My initial disagreement with the majority opinion was on the issue of jurisdiction. The case should be within the exclusive appellate jurisdiction of the Missouri Supreme Court as one involving the “construction of the Constitution of the United States or of this state,” Mo.Const.…