State v. Thomas

DOWD, Presiding Judge.

Charles Lee Thomas was charged by information with capital murder. The penalty provision of the information was dismissed due to the fact that discretionary alternative penalties similar to those articulated in § 559.005 and § 559.009 RSMo 1975 had been declared unconstitutional by the United States Supreme Court. (See, Furman v. Georgia, 408 U.S. 238, 92 S.Ct. 2726, 33 L.Ed. 346 (1972)). The charge was revised to read murder in the first degree and the corresponding penalty provision was to be governed by § 559.011 RSMo 1975.1

Thomas was convicted by a jury of murder in…