We’ve heard complaints from a lot of you about the charges filed in connection with a fatal stabbing last weekend in St Joseph. Richard Berry was found stabbed to death in the Third Fork of the Platte River Saturday night. This week three people were charged with second degree murder.
Prosecuting Attorney Dwight Scroggins says his office operates under a charging philosophy based not only on what he thinks he can prove in court, but also on the range of punishment available.
Scroggins says murder in the first degree allows only the death penalty or life without parole upon conviction. Defendants convicted of second degree murder face anywhere from ten years to life in prison, with a possibility of parole after about 25 years.
“If I think that that range of punishment is appropriate as punishment for the crime that has occurred, then we charge murder in the second degree,” Scroggins said in an interview.
“I would say probably, across the State of Missouri, 97, 98 percent of all homicides are either charged, or end up pleading, to murder in the second degree. That is the norm. That is not unusual at all.”
Scroggins also says his office files the charge that’s appropriate for the crime committed, and will not reduce that charge in a plea bargain.
“We are not going to charge somebody with murder in the second degree, and reduce it to voluntary manslaughter. If I think it is manslaughter, I charge it as manslaughter,” Scroggins said.
“We do not charge murder-one and then reduce to murder-two in the plea, which is commonly done in other jurisdictions, so that makes it seem like there are a lot more murder-one cases elsewhere than there are here. In reality I doubt that that’s true.”
“If I think that what I can prove is first degree murder, the only thing that adds, beyond making it a much higher burden of proof for me, is that it takes away the possibility of parole.”
Scroggins says that the life expectancy of defendants sent to prison is dramatically reduced. So, he says many of those defendants sentenced to life, with the possibility of parole after 25 years, may still serve the rest of their lives in jail.
He adds that no one is guaranteed parole after 25 years. That’s simply the earliest that the Parole Board may consider releasing an inmate on parole.
Three people have been charged with second degree murder in the stabbing death of 28-year-old Richard J. Berry Saturday night. Kellie Hoard, Primalton Peterson, and Sean Liechti are due in court Friday.