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Thread: Marvin Rice Sentenced to LWOP in 2017 MO Murders of Annette Durham and Steven Strotkamp

  1. #11
    Senior Member CnCP Addict one_two_bomb's Avatar
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    Joseph C. Welling needs to take his opinion and shove it up his urethra. He is just another radical anti-DP activist who likes to pretend he understands the law.

    Judge-imposed death sentences are a modern invention. Traditionally, death sentences could only be imposed by a unanimous jury.
    Smh! Someone needs to give this Renob a history lesson. He must be a millenial!

  2. #12
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    Traditionally in a state where unanimous votes were never law.

    They just make this stuff up all the time and the news people parrot this crap.

  3. #13
    Senior Member CnCP Addict one_two_bomb's Avatar
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    Like they really give a crap about these 2 specific death sentences. People just need to come out and say they believe the death penalty is wrong period, and they have a respectable argument. Unfortunately Furman allows them to attack DP laws and chip away at it til there is nothing left.

  4. #14
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    Missouri Supreme Court to consider capital punishment case and whether state’s death penalty is unconstitutional

    By Jason Taylor
    Missourinet.com

    The Missouri Supreme Court in Jefferson City will determine whether a man was wrongly given capital punishment and whether the state’s death penalty law is unconstitutional.

    Former U.S. Army soldier and Dent County Sheriff’s Deputy Marvin Rice was convicted of murdering the mother of his child and her boyfriend in December 2011. Rice was fired from his position as a deputy in 2009 after he and the mother, Annette Durham, who had been incarcerated several times, had an affair.

    Durham gave birth to Rice’s child while in prison and he took custody of the child during her incarceration. Upon her release from prison, Durham had supervised visits with the child. According to court documents, during her first unsupervised visit, she called up Rice and told him that she would not bring the child home that night as promised.

    Rice, who had been honorably discharged from the Army and classified as a disabled veteran after suffering from a knee injury and being treated for his first episode of major depressive disorder, sank further into depression after losing his job at the sheriff’s department. By the time of the shooting incident, he’d also discovered that he had a pituitary gland tumor, which caused a thyroid abnormality, affecting some of his hormone levels, which further worsened his depression.

    Court documents filed by his attorney before the Supreme Court, Assistant State Public Defender Craig Johnston, noted Rice was taking 17 different medications and had been diagnosed with 12 various medical and psychiatric conditions by the day of the shooting, December 11, 2011.

    After hearing Durham tell him she would not be returning the child, Rice confronted Durham and her boyfriend, Steven Strotkamp, at their residence in Dent County. In an altercation with both of them after breaking down the front door, he shot and killed Durham outside the home and Strotkamp inside. An autopsy revealed that Durham died from four gunshot wounds while Strotkamp was killed by two gunshot wounds.

    After the incident, Rice swapped his car for his wife’s car and headed to the V.A. hospital in Columbia. His wife informed police of his intention during a phone conversation, and a high-speed chase ensued that covered over 90 miles and ended in Jefferson City. After spike strips flattened his vehicle’s tires, Rice traveled through two intersections and ended up in the parking lot of the Capital Plaza Hotel.

    As Rice drove underneath the awning of the front of the hotel, he jumped out of the moving car, leaving the car to roll through the parking lot with some officers chasing it. From behind a wall inside the hotel, he exchanged gunfire with an officer in pursuit. The hotel was particularly busy because the Jefferson City Medical Group was hosting a Christmas party at the hotel and there was a hockey tournament in town. An officer who was working an off-duty job at the hotel got behind Rice and shot him. He sustained bullet wounds to his hand, arm, and lower back and was taken into custody.

    Rice was charged with two counts of first-degree murder, and the state also filed notice it was seeking the death penalty. It offered aggravating circumstances, including that the murders were committed while Rice was engaged in the commission or attempted commission of another unlawful homicide, and that the murders were “outrageously or wantonly vile, horrible or inhuman in that they involved torture or depravity of mind.”

    A trial court sentenced Rice to death after the jury became deadlocked in St. Charles County where his case was moved on a change of venue. The jury returned a verdict of life imprisonment without parole for second-degree murder in the death of Strotkamp but was hung over the first-degree murder count in the death of Durham. Eleven jury members favored giving him an additional life in prison sentence while one favored the death penalty.

    Rice’s appeal in the Supreme Court argues seven points, including that evidence should have been suppressed and a mistrial should have been granted. It further asserts that Missouri’s law requiring a judge to make independent factual findings supporting a death sentence when a jury is deadlocked is unconstitutional.

    In its first count, Rice’s appeal argues he was denied a fair trial and a right to be free from self-incrimination because the prosecutor for the state commented upon failure to testify during the trial.

    In addition, the appeal claims he should have been granted a mistrial because the prosecution violated a Supreme Court ruling that a defendant’s silence in response to a Miranda warning can’t be used against him.

    It also claims Rice’s statement describing the incident in which he killed Durham and Strotkamp during interrogation at a hospital should have been excluded because police continued to question him after he said he didn’t want to answer questions.

    His defense further claims the jury should have been given the option of considering manslaughter charges because there was evidence that Marvin caused Strotkamp’s death under the influence of sudden passion given his mental state.

    Finally, the appeal claims the Missouri death penalty arrangement is unconstitutional because it permits the trial court to impose a death sentence when the jury has failed to unanimously agree it is warranted, and it allows only two people, in this case, the judge and one juror, to decide that a defendant should receive death in a jury-tried case.

    The appeal also contends Missouri’s death penalty law violates a core Supreme Court holding – for states to limit capital punishment to a ‘narrow category’ of the most egregious murderers for whom the death penalty is reserved. It says a Missouri prosecutor is currently free to pursue the death penalty in virtually any murder case as a result of the failure.

    The American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri, the ACLU Foundation Capital Punishment Project and Missourians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty filed a brief as friends of the Court. They argue Missouri’s capital sentencing statute is unconstitutional because it allows a judge, rather than the jury, to make factual findings supporting a death sentence and then sentence the defendant to death when the jury is unable to agree unanimously on a punishment.

    Missouri and Indiana are the only states that legislatively authorize a judge to impose a death sentence when a jury is deadlocked.

    The appeal from Rice is asking for a new trial over his second-degree murder charge of Strotkamp and a life without parole sentence for his first-degree murder conviction of Durham. In court documents submitted by Assistant Attorney General Nathan

    Aquino, the state argues against all seven points raised in Rice’s appeal to the Supreme Court.

    The high bench will hear oral arguments in the case Wednesday morning. Rice is currently incarcerated at the Potosi Correctional Center where all inmates serving a death sentence are housed.

    https://www.missourinet.com/2019/01/...onstitutional/
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  5. #15
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Missouri Supreme Court issues ruling in Marvin Rice death penalty case

    The Missouri Supreme Court issued an opinion on Tuesday in Jefferson City, which overturns the death sentence for a man convicted of killing the mother of his child and her boyfriend in southern Missouri’s Dent County in December 2011.

    In a unanimous decision, the Missouri Supreme Court has ruled that the circuit court committed errors during the trial. The decision was written by Judge Mary R. Russell.

    The Supreme Court has upheld the first degree murder conviction for 51-year-old Marvin Rice, but has ordered a new penalty phase trial. That’s because the Supreme Court says the circuit court abused its discretion in overruling Rice’s objections that prosecutors said in closing arguments that Rice declined to testify.

    Rice was convicted of killing Annette Durham and her boyfriend, Steven Strotkamp. An autopsy revealed that Durham died from four gunshot wounds while Strotkamp was killed by two gunshot wounds.

    The Missouri Supreme Court heard oral arguments in this case in January.

    Quoting court filings, Missourinet reported in January that Marvin Rice was trying to drive to the Columbia VA Hospital, after the killings. His wife informed police of his plan, and a high-speed chase ensued that covered more than 90 miles and ended in Jefferson City, just a few blocks from the Capitol.

    After spike strips flattened his vehicle’s tires, Rice drove through two intersections and ended up at the Capitol Plaza Hotel, where he jumped out of the moving car.

    Rice then exchanged gunfire with an officer inside the busy hotel. The Jefferson City Medical Group was hosting their Christmas party inside Capitol Plaza, when the incident happened. None of them were injured.

    Rice sustained bullet wounds to his hand, arm and back and was taken into custody.

    Court documents filed by Rice’s attorneys say Rice was taking 17 different medications and had been diagnosed with 12 various medical and psychiatric conditions by the day of the murders, in December 2011.

    Rice is currently incarcerated at the maximum-security Potosi Correctional Center (PCC) in southeast Missouri’s Mineral Point.

    https://www.missourinet.com/2019/04/...-penalty-case/
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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    Former Missouri sheriff's deputy convicted in two homicides to be resentenced in St. Charles

    By Joel Currier
    The St. Louis Post Dispatch

    A St. Charles County jury will decide next week whether to give a former Dent County sheriff's deputy convicted of murdering a woman in 2017 a death sentence or a life term without parole.

    Jurors will hear evidence over several days next week to re-sentence Marvin D. Rice, 54, in the 2011 killing of Annette Durham, the mother of his child.

    A judge in 2017 sentenced Rice to death after a jury found him guilty of first-degree murder. The Missouri Supreme Court later affirmed the conviction but ordered a new sentencing.

    Rice was also sentenced to life in prison for second-degree murder in the killing of Durham's boyfriend, Steven Strotkamp, but the Missouri Supreme Court in 2019 overturned that case and ordered a new trial.

    Rice's first trial was moved to St. Charles County from Dent County because of the publicity attached to the case, and because of Rice’s former job there. His retrial also will be held in St. Charles County.

    A jury was selected this week, officials said. The St. Charles County Circuit Court sealed Rice's pending murder case in Missouri Case.Net, the state's online court system, ahead of trial.

    https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/...3b8cf1ca8.html

  7. #17
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    Marvin Rice has been resentenced to death, according to MADPMO.

    https://twitter.com/MADPMO/status/1510123110435102725

  8. #18
    Administrator Aaron's Avatar
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    This time it was a jury rather than a judge. They are saying first jury to do so since 2013.
    Don't ask questions, just consume product and then get excited for next products.

    "They will hurt you. They will hurt your grandma, these people. The root cause of this is there's no discipline in the homes, they don't go to school, you know, they live off the government, no personal accountability, and they just beat people up for no reason, and it's disgusting." - Former Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters

  9. #19
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    St. Charles County jury recommends death sentence for Missouri sheriff's deputy

    By Joel Currier
    The St. Louis Post Dispatch

    A St. Charles County jury has recommended a death sentence for a former Dent County sheriff's deputy convicted of murdering a woman in 2017.

    The jury late Friday night recommended a death sentence for 54-year-old Marvin D. Rice, who was convicted of murdering Annette Durham, 32. Durham, who was killed in 2011, was the mother of his child.

    A sentencing hearing before Circuit Judge Daniel Pelikan is set for May 23.

    A judge in 2017 sentenced Rice to death after a jury found him guilty of first-degree murder. The Missouri Supreme Court later affirmed the conviction but ordered a new sentencing trial, held last week.

    Rice was also sentenced in 2017 to life in prison for second-degree murder in the killing of Durham's boyfriend, Steven Strotkamp, 39, but the Missouri Supreme Court in 2019 overturned that case and ordered a new trial.

    Rice's first trial was moved to St. Charles County from Dent County because of the publicity attached to the case, and because of Rice’s former job there.

    The fatal shootings stemmed from a custody dispute between Rice and Durham over their son, who was conceived during an affair Rice had while he was a Dent County sheriff’s deputy.

    The son was born while Durham was serving a prison sentence.

    https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/...3f92ceb7e.html

  10. #20
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    Missouri Capital Defendant Argues that State’s 1st Jury Vote for Death in Nine Years Is Based on a Nonexistent Aggravating Factor

    A Missouri capital defendant whose jury was the 1st in 9 years to recommended the death penalty in the state is challenging the verdict as based solely on a nonexistent aggravating factor.

    On April 1, 2022, a St. Charles County jury in Marvin D. Rice’s capital resentencing trial recommended that he be sentenced to death for killing his ex-girlfriend, Annette Durham, during a dispute over custody of their child. In a Motion for new trial filed in the St.

    Charles County Circuit Court on April 14, 2022, Rice asked Circuit Judge Daniel Pelikanhe to set aside the jury’s verdict and direct that he instead be resentenced to life in prison. The death sentence, his lawyers say, is predicated upon a 2nd murder conviction in the case that was overturned and never readjudicated.

    In 2017, a jury convicted Rice of 1st-degree murder for Durham’s death and 2nd-degree murder for killing her boyfriend, Steven W. Strotkamp. The jury then voted 11–1 to impose a life sentence. However, because the sentencing vote was not unanimous, Missouri’s controversial “hung jury” sentencing provision allowed the trial court to independently evaluate the evidence and impose sentence, and Circuit Judge Kelly Wayne Parker sentenced Rice to death.

    In a decision issued April 2, 2019, the Missouri Supreme Court overturned Rice’s conviction for Strotkamp’s death and reversed his death sentence. The appeals court held that Judge Parker had improperly refused to instruct the jury to consider whether Strothkamp’s killing was the product of “sudden passion” and unconstitutionally denied Rice’s objection to the prosecution’s improper comments in the penalty phase on Rice’s decision not to testify in the case.

    At the time of the resentencing trial, Rice had not yet been retried on the charges related to Strothkamp’s death and his innocence or degree of guilt has not yet been adjudicated. Nevertheless, the trial court denied Rice’s motion to strike the aggravating circumstance that Durham’s murder had been committed “while the defendant was engaged in commission of another unlawful homicide,” which was the sole factor found by the jury that made Rice eligible for the death penalty. Because Rice has not been retried and could be acquitted or convicted of charges less than homicide, his lawyers argue that the evidence at trial was insufficient to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Strothkamp’s death was an “unlawful homicide.”

    The trial court is scheduled to conduct a hearing on Rice’s motion on May 23, 2022.

    No state in the United States authorizes a judge to override a jury’s recommendation of a life sentence, and all three states that previously permitted the practice have ended it since 2016. Missouri law, however, considers a non-unanimous vote a nullity rather than a recommendation, entrusting the sentencing decision to a judge. In 2016, the Florida Supreme Court and the Delaware Supreme Court struck down provisions in their death-penalty laws that permitted judges to impose death sentences after 1 or more jurors voted for life. The Florida legislature then amended its death-penalty law to require a unanimous jury recommendation for death before the court may impose a death sentence. Alabama still permits judges to impose a death sentence if ten or more jurors have recommended death.

    In Rice’s previous appeal, his lawyers challenged the constitutionality of Missouri’s hung jury statute arguing that it violates the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2002 ruling in Hurst v. Florida that “[t]he Sixth Amendment requires a jury, not a judge, to find each fact necessary to impose a sentence of death.” Because the court overturned his death sentence on other grounds, it did not address that issue.

    The motion also argues that Rice, who the defense says suffered from “severe depression” at the time of the incident, was denied a fair sentencing trial because key witnesses were no longer available to provide live testimony to the jury in 2022. One witness,
    Rice’s lawyer said, died shortly after the first trial, and Rice’s children, who previously “testified to [their] father’s struggles with mental illness” were unavailable because of “the psychological stress of testifying at trial.” Rice’s daughter, the motion said, was “in an in-patient psychiatric facility and did not testify at the second trial due to the emotional stress.”

    (source: Death Penalty Information Center)
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

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