Firearms Owners Against Crime
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
A recent Missouri Supreme Court decision has closed a loophole in state law that prosecutors feared would allow some felons to carry guns.
The state’s top court issued a decision earlier this month that a constitutional amendment passed in August 2014, which gave Missourians an “unalienable” right to bear arms, did not invalidate the state’s felon-in-possession law that makes it illegal for felons to carry guns.
“That’s a great ruling for public safety,” said Greene County Prosecutor Dan Patterson.
Amendment 5 created “uncertainty” over the state’s felon-in-possession law, Patterson said. The amendment’s language seemed to say the felon-in-possession law would still pertain to felons who committed violent crimes but not those felons who committed nonviolent felonies.
Complicating the matter, Patterson said, was that “violent crimes” was not defined in the amendment and is not generally defined in state law.
“And in fact there had been several cases where judges had dismissed felony in possession of firearms cases when the prior felony convictions weren’t violent felonies,” Patterson said.
There was also the case of Darrell L. Smith, of Springfield, who in June 2014 pleaded guilty to the second-degree murder of his girlfriend Jennifer Walker in December 2012.
Smith said the shooting death was accidental. The gun went off while he was sitting on his couch with Walker, he told authorities.
However, medical examiners disputed Smith’s story.
Prosecutors charged Smith, a convicted felon, with “felony murder.” It is a charge prosecutors can make against someone when that person commits a felony that results in a death.
Smith seemed to fit the bill for this charge because as a convicted felon, his gun possession was a felony and it resulted in Walker’s death.
However, his previous felony convictions were for nonviolent crimes, which meant that according to Amendment 5, he was no longer committing a felony by possessing a gun on the night he shot Walker.
This allowed Smith to rescind his guilty plea in October, and prosecutors then had to prove Smith had intended to kill his girlfriend.
In March, Smith was convicted of the lesser charge of involuntary manslaughter — which generally means causing someone’s death through recklessness.
Smith was sentenced to the maximum seven years on the manslaughter charge and a concurrent five years for armed criminal action.
Greene County Sheriff Jim Arnott, who had also said there was a need to keep the felon-in-possession law in place, agreed the ruling was a good one.
“It just seemed strange that the convicted felon wouldn’t be able to purchase a gun but he could carry one,” Arnott said.
Ed.: No, the court ruled the new amendment didn't apply retroactively.