Weeks v. State

771 S.W.2d 353, 1989 Mo. App. LEXIS 621, 1989 WL 45364
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedMay 5, 1989
DocketNo. 15880
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 771 S.W.2d 353 (Weeks v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Missouri Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Weeks v. State, 771 S.W.2d 353, 1989 Mo. App. LEXIS 621, 1989 WL 45364 (Mo. Ct. App. 1989).

Opinion

PER CURIAM.

Movant Earl Weeks appeals from the trial court’s order, entered without an evi-dentiary hearing, overruling his Rule 27.-261 motion to set aside a judgment and sentence for murder. The conviction, based on a jury verdict, was affirmed by this court, State v. Weeks, 546 S.W.2d 567 (Mo.App.1977).

Movant’s sole point is that he was entitled to an evidentiary hearing on his motion and to relief thereon, and the trial court erred in ruling otherwise, because the motion raised issues of fact as to whether movant was denied effective assistance of counsel at the jury trial and whether his counsel at the jury trial “operated under an impermissible conflict of interest.” Mov-ant also asserts that he was deprived of his opportunity, at the hearing on his second motion for new trial following the jury verdict, “to ‘confront’ his trial attorneys as to their performance at [the jury trial],” and that “the court of appeals addressed these issues when they were not yet properly reviewable and without the benefit of a complete record.”

Appellate review is limited to a determination of whether the findings, conclusions and judgment of the trial court are clearly erroneous. Rule 27.26(j). In order to qualify for an evidentiary hearing, movant must meet three requirements: (1) The motion must allege facts, not conclusions, warranting relief; (2) those facts must raise matters not refuted by the files and records in the case; (3) the matters complained of must have resulted in prejudice to movant. Ahart v. State, 732 S.W.2d 256, 257[1] (Mo.App.1987).

An issue which could have been raised on direct appeal from a criminal conviction, even if it is a constitutional issue, may not be raised in a post-conviction proceeding, except where fundamental fairness requires otherwise and only in rare and exceptional circumstances. Brayfield v. State, 738 S.W.2d 579, 580[1] (Mo.App.1987); Bradford v. State, 694 S.W.2d 760, 761[1] (Mo.App.1985).

“A rule 27.26 motion cannot be used as a vehicle for a second appellate review and issues decided in the direct appeal cannot be litigated in a post-conviction proceeding. ... This is true even though the issue is cloaked in a different theory.” O’Neal v. State, 766 S.W.2d 91, 92[1] (Mo. banc 1989).

“The sentencing court is barred from entertaining a second, or successive, motion for relief whose allegation of error has been raised and determined adversely to the applicant on a prior application, or where the ground presented is new, but could have been raised in the prior motion. The burden is on the prisoner to establish that any ground raised in a second motion could not have been raised by him in the prior motion. Rule 27.-26(d).”

Sours v. State, 725 S.W.2d 649[1] (Mo.App.1987).

A claim that counsel was ineffective in a Rule 27.26 proceeding may not be the basis for a second Rule 27.26 proceeding. Huston v. State, 679 S.W.2d 408, 409-410[3] (Mo.App.1984).

The instant Rule 27.26 motion was filed on March 2, 1987. It was amended on August 14, 1987, and again amended on November 5, 1987. This opinion will refer to that motion, as amended, as “the second [355]*355Rule 27.26 motion.” For the reasons which follow, this court affirms the judgment of the trial court denying movant relief.

On November 30, 1974, movant, during the course of a robbery, murdered an elderly lady. Since that date, movant’s numerous contacts with the legal system, culminating in the instant proceeding, occurred in the following steps:

(1) April 5, 1975 — A jury found movant guilty of first degree murder and fixed his punishment at life imprisonment.

(2) May 16, 1975 — Movant filed an untimely motion for new trial. On May 23, 1975, the trial court conducted an evidentia-ry hearing on movant’s charges of ineffective assistance of assisting counsel, intimidation and harassment of defense witnesses, and other points contained in the untimely motion.

(3) February 1, 1977 — This court reviewed the six-volume transcript (1,558 pages) and the exhibits, and considered the 13 points contained in movant’s 68-page brief. No plain error was found and this court affirmed the conviction. State v. Weeks, 546 S.W.2d 567 (Mo.App.1977), (“Weeks I”).

(4) May 17, 1977 — Movant filed a Rule 27.26 motion, which this opinion will refer to as “the first Rule 27.26 motion.” One ground of that motion was based on ineffective assistance of counsel in failing to file a timely motion for new trial. On July 3,1978, the trial court sustained the motion on that ground and overruled the other grounds. Movant appealed to this court from the latter portion of the trial court’s order. On March 29, 1979, that appeal (Case No. 11306) was dismissed for mov-ant’s failure to perfect it. See State v. Weeks, 603 S.W.2d 657, 659, n. 1 (Mo.App.1980). On July 6, 1978, movant filed his second motion for new trial.

(5) September 29, 1978 — The trial court held a hearing on, and denied, movant’s second motion for new trial.

(6) June 18, 1980 — This court, on mov-ant’s appeal, affirmed the conviction and rejected movant’s claims of ineffective assistance of counsel based on an alleged conflict of interest on the part of movant’s attorney, Richard Franks, in also representing movant’s co-defendant Ralph Parcel. This court also rejected movant’s claims concerning harassment of defense witnesses, the admissibility of testimony and photographs concerning footprints in the snow, ineffective assistance of counsel in not calling Parcel as a defense witness, and the admissibility of testimony and photographs concerning witness Pearson. State v. Weeks, 603 S.W.2d 657 (Mo.App.1980), (“Weeks II”).

(7) November 25, 1980 — Movant filed a petition for habeas corpus in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Iowa, asserting 33 grounds for relief.

(8) December 30, 1980 — The habeas corpus proceeding was transferred to the United States District Court for the Western District of Missouri.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Spencer v. State
776 S.W.2d 428 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1989)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
771 S.W.2d 353, 1989 Mo. App. LEXIS 621, 1989 WL 45364, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/weeks-v-state-moctapp-1989.