State Missouri v. Sharon Kinne

A jury has found that Sharon Kinne shot and killed her husband, James Kinne, that she was guilty of murder in the first degree and of necessity therefore fixed her punishment at life imprisonment. RSMo 1959, Secs. 559.010, 558.030, V.A.M.S. Upon the trial of her case the state waived the death penalty and for that reason over the appellants objection, the court called a panel of thirty-four jurors rather than a panel of forty-seven, thus of course reducing the number of challenges by the defendant. The statute applicable to Jackson County and a defendants peremptory challenges provides that "If the offense charged is punishable with death, or by imprisonment in the penitentiary not less than for life, to the number of twenty, and no more." RSMo 1959, Sec. 546.180, subd. 2(1) (a), V.A.M.S. At the January 1963 Session of this court it was decided, the punishment for first degree murder being "not less than life," that because of the refusal to call a panel of forty-seven jurors her conviction would necessarily have to be reversed. State v. May, 168 Mo. 122, 67 S.W. 566; State v. Yandell, 201 Mo. 646, 100 S.W. 466; State v. Naylor, 328 Mo. 335, 40 S.W.2d 1079. The court was satisfied with that part of the opinion and it is not necessary to elaborate upon that phase of the appeal, it is sufficient to summarily say that for failure to follow the plain mandate of the statute and call a panel of forty-seven jurors the judgment must be reversed and the cause remanded for a new trial. After adoption of the opinion, however, a rehearing was granted as to a single specific matter, states witness John Boldizs and whether the state prejudicially erred in its examination of him, - hence this opinion upon reassignment of the cause.