State v. Nelson

SPINDEN, Judge.

Robert E. Nelson appeals criminal convictions of forcible rape and armed criminal action and the sentences for those convictions. Nelson contends that the trial court erred in sustaining the state’s objection to his opening statement in which his counsel attempted to outline evidence which would be developed through cross-examination of the state’s witness. He claims the trial court’s ruling deprived him of rights guaranteed to him by the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution and Mo. Const., Art. I, § 10.

As part of its opening statement, the state…