Lawyer Erred by Ignoring Murder Victim’s Child Porn Habit, Mo. Top Court Says
A death row inmate deserves a new sentencing hearing because his trial lawyer ignored the victim’s apparent penchant for child pornography, according to the Missouri Supreme Court.
The court ruled on behalf of murder defendant Mark Gill, accused of kidnapping, robbing and murdering the man who lived in a trailer on his property, the Associated Press reports.
The Dec. 1 en banc opinion said Gill may have escaped a death sentence if his lawyer had countered testimony about the victim’s good character with evidence that the victim’s computer contained child pornography and other sexual material.
“A reasonably competent attorney would have carefully reviewed the report provided by the state and recognized file names like ‘a_slutty18girl_w38c” and ‘sweet_tasting_slute’ as evidence of sexually explicit material on the computer,” the opinion said. “A reasonably competent attorney would have conducted further investigation as to the contents of the computer and discovered the child pornography images, bestiality content, and sexually explicit instant message conversations.”
The court noted that a lawyer for a co-defendant had discovered the computer information, leading prosecutors to tone down testimony about the victim’s character to avoid admission of the rebuttal evidence. The co-defendant received a life sentence.
