Local News

St. Louis Circuit Attorney Gets Missouri AG Help on Post-Conviction Cases | St. Louis

Published

11 months ago

November 21, 2023

[ad_1]

click to enlarge COURTESY MISSOURI GOVERNOR’S OFFICE Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey.

St. Louis Circuit Attorney Gabe Gore has farmed out approximately 100 post-conviction relief cases filed with his office to an unusual assistant — Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey.

These cases, which in Missouri are technically civil litigation, represent a convicted person’s challenge to either their conviction or sentence in a criminal case. Unlike appeals, these cases allow for new evidence to be introduced, and they go to the jurisdiction where the case originated, not the appellate court.

Bailey’s office is handling the cases as part of its effort to stabilize the circuit attorney’s office in the wake of the departure of Gore’s predecessor, Kim Gardner. But as a Republican who holds a statewide office, it’s safe to say Bailey represents a different way of approaching attempts to overturn a conviction than anyone likely to be selected by St. Louis voters. In fact, the attorney general’s office has pretty much uniformly opposed overturning sentences of people found guilty.

In one very notable recent example, attorneys with the Missouri Attorney General’s Office threw up roadblock after roadblock against the legal team for Lamar Johnson, a St. Louis man wrongfully convicted for murder in 1995 and whose decades-long quest to get out of prison ended in success earlier this year. In trying to block those efforts, lawyers for then-Attorney General Eric Schmitt went so far as to contest even the most basic underlying facts, including the time and location of the murder Johnson had been convicted of. That’s according to the Missouri Independent’s Rebecca Rivas, who did a deep dive last year into the AG’s long history opposing wrongful-conviction-cases.

While Johnson’s case was a wrongful conviction case, not one of post-conviction relief, attorney Joe Welling points out that both types of cases deal with situations in which “interests in justice are in tension with interests in finality.”

Historically, the attorney general’s office has been interested in finality, meaning that once a verdict has been rendered it almost always defends it.

Even so, Bailey’s efforts to assist with post-conviction appeals in St. Louis may be more of a continuation of the circuit attorney’s handling of such claims under Gardner than a break from it.

Nina McDonnell, a former public defender who now has her own private practice, McDonnell Appeals, says that she’s never found the attorney general’s office to be particularly easy to deal with on those appeals and she suspects it will be the same with the cases they are handling for the circuit attorney’s office.

However, she says virtually all post-conviction relief appeals were dead on arrival at the Circuit Attorney’s Office when Gardner was in charge.

“At Kim’s office, a blanket rule was that we do not negotiate PCRs,” McDonnell says. She adds that this held true even when there were obvious examples of people who had ineffective legal representation and shouldn’t be in jail.

She says she has hope that things will eventually be better with Gore in charge, though she doesn’t have high hopes for the cases Bailey is handling.

“It doesn’t matter what the case is. It doesn’t matter if justice is going to be served. They are going to fight it,” she says of both Bailey and Schmitt before him.

“Old timers have told me you used to be able to call the AG’s office and say, ‘Hey, you got to look at this,'” says McDonnell. “But those days are over.”

Bailey, in a brief interview with RFT last week, defended his predecessor’s handling of the Johnson case, saying Schmitt acted properly.

“That was one of the first times that statute had been used,” Bailey said, referring to a 2021 state law that gave prosecutors a path to appeal cases that had been decided in their jurisdictions. “I think he appropriately fulfilled his role in that process, and sought to not only litigate the case, but also to provide clarity from the court.”

Bailey says that as attorney general he is committed to “ensuring the rule of law is respected, there is a finality of judgments and that we’re respecting the rights of victims.”

As for the 100 or so post-conviction cases his office is handling on behalf of Gore, Bailey says he’s going to take a “case by case approach” with each one.

Circuit Attorney spokeswoman Chrstine Bertelson says that the attorney general’s role in post-conviction relief cases is appropriate “given the understaffing and unprecedented volume of backlog of cases that existed when Mr. Gore was appointed.”

She adds that it was already a matter of practice that the attorney general’s office generally handled post-conviction cases in St. Louis that were appealed to the appellate courts.

[ad_2]

Source link

Local News

Fenton Man Charged in Sword Attack on Roommate

Published

5 months ago

May 22, 2024

Natural Bridge

[ad_1]

A warrant is out for a Fenton man’s arrest after he allegedly attacked his roommate with a sword.

Police say that on Sunday, Angelus Scott spoke openly about “slicing his roommate’s head” before he grabbed a sword, raised it up and then swung it down at the roommate.

The roommate grabbed Scott’s hand in time to prevent injury. When police arrived at the scene, they found the weapon used in the assault.

The sword in question was a katana, which is a Japanese sword recognizable for its curved blade.

This isn’t the first time a samurai-style sword has been used to violent effect in St. Louis. In 2018, a man hearing voices slaughtered his ex-boyfriend with a samurai sword. His mother said he suffered from schizoaffective disorder.

As for Scott, 35, the St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office was charged yesterday with two felonies, assault first degree and armed criminal action. The warrant for his arrest says he is to be held on $200,000 bond.

[ad_2]

Source link

Local News

Caught on Video, Sheriff Says He’s Ready to ‘Turn It All Over’ to Deputy

Published

5 months ago

May 22, 2024

Natural Bridge

[ad_1]

Video of St. Louis Sheriff Vernon Betts taken by a former deputy suggests that the sheriff has a successor in mind to hand the reins of the department over to, even as Betts is in an increasingly heated campaign for reelection.

“I ain’t here for all this rigmarole,” Betts says in the video while seated behind his desk at the Carnahan Courthouse. “The Lord sent me here to turn this department around and I’m doing the best I can and I think I’ve done a good job. I’ve got about eight months and I’m going to qualify for my fourth pension.”

He goes on, “Right now I can walk up out of here and live happily ever after and forget about all this…and live like a king.”

The sheriff then says his wife has been in Atlanta looking at houses and that the other deputy in the room, Donald Hawkins, is someone Betts has been training “to turn it all over to him.”

Asked about the video, Betts tells the RFT, “My future plans are to win reelection on August 6th by a wide margin and to continue my mission as the top elected law enforcement official to make St. Louis safer and stronger. Serving the people of St. Louis with integrity, honor and professional law enforcement qualifications is a sacred responsibility, and I intend to complete that mission.”

The video of Betts was taken by Barbara Chavers, who retired from the sheriff’s office in 2016 after 24 years of service. Chavers now works security at Schnucks at Grand and Gravois. Betts’ brother Howard works security there, too.

Chavers tells the RFT that she was summoned to Betts’ office last week after Betts’ brother made the sheriff aware that she was supporting Montgomery. It was no secret: Chavers had filmed a Facebook live video in which she said she was supporting Betts’ opponent Alfred Montgomery in the election this fall. “Make the judges safe,” she says in the video, standing in front of a large Montgomery sign on Gravois Avenue. “They need a sheriff who is going to make their courtrooms safe.”

In his office, even as Chavers made clear she was filming him, Betts told Chavers he was “flabbergasted” and “stunned” she was supporting Montgomery.

“I don’t know what I did that would make you go against the preacher man,” he says, referring to himself. He then refers to Montgomery as “ungodly.”

Betts goes on to say that not long ago, he was walking in his neighborhood on St. Louis Avenue near 20th Street when suddenly Montgomery pulled up in his car and, according to Betts, shouted, “You motherfucker, you this, you that. You’re taking my signs down.”

Montgomery tells the RFT that he’s never interacted with Betts outside of candidate forums and neighborhood meetings.

“I don’t think anyone with good sense would do something like that to a sitting sheriff,” Montgomery says.

Montgomery has had campaign signs missing and on at least two occasions has obtained video of people tearing them down. (Chavers notes that the sign that she filmed her original Facebook video in front of is itself now missing.)

One man who lives near Columbus Square says that he recently put out two Montgomery signs, which later went missing. “If they keep taking them, I’ll keep putting them up,” he said.

Betts says he has nothing to do with the missing signs. In the video Chavers filmed in Betts’ office, Betts says that his campaign isn’t in a spot where it needs to resort to tearing down opponents’ signs.

“If you sit here long enough, a man is getting ready to come across the street from City Hall bringing me $500, today,” Betts says. “I’m getting that kind of support. I don’t need to tear down signs.”

[ad_2]

Source link

Local News

St. Louis to Develop First Citywide Transportation Plan in Decades

Published

5 months ago

May 21, 2024

Natural Bridge

[ad_1]

The City of St. Louis is working to develop its first citywide mobility plan in decades, Mayor Tishaura Jones’ office announced Tuesday. This plan seeks to make it easier for everyone — drivers, pedestrians, bikers and public transit users — to safely commute within the city.

The plan will bring together other city projects like the Brickline Greenway, Future64, the MetroLink Green Line, and more, “while establishing new priorities for a safer, more efficient and better-maintained transportation network across the City,” according to the release.

The key elements in the plan will be public engagement, the development of a safety action plan, future infrastructure priorities and transportation network mapping, according to Jones’ office.

The overarching goals are to create a vision for citywide mobility, plan a mixture of short and long-term mobility projects and to develop improved communication tools with the public to receive transportation updates. In recent years, both people who use public transit and cyclists have been outspoken about the difficulties — and dangers — of navigating St. Louis streets, citing both cuts to public transit and traffic violence.

To garner public input and participation for the plan, Jones’ office said there will be community meetings, focus groups and a survey for residents to share their concerns. The city will also be establishing a Community Advisory Committee. Those interested in learning more should check out at tmp-stl.com/

“Everyone deserves to feel safe when getting around St. Louis, whether they’re driving, biking, walking or taking public transit,” Jones said in a news release. “Creating a comprehensive transportation and mobility plan allows us to make intentional and strategic investments so that moving around St. Louis for jobs, education, and entertainment becomes easier, safer and more enjoyable.”

[ad_2]

Source link