Mo. Rev. Stat. § 565.020

First degree murder, penalty — person under eighteen years of age, penalty

Applied in 14 court decisions — leading case Thompson v. Oklahoma (1988)

Most recently applied in Dunn v. State (September 2011)

Effective: 13 Jul 2016, 2 histories, see footnote; (L. 1983 S.B. 276, A.L. 1984 S.B. 448 § A, A.L. 1990 H.B. 974, A.L. 2016 S.B. 590)

How often courts cite this section

citing decisions per year

Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.

1. A person commits the offense of murder in the first degree if he or she knowingly causes the death of another person after deliberation upon the matter.

2. The offense of murder in the first degree is a class A felony, and, if a person is eighteen years of age or older at the time of the offense, the punishment shall be either death or imprisonment for life without eligibility for probation or parole, or release except by act of the governor. If a person has not reached his or her eighteenth birthday at the time of the commission of the offense, the punishment shall be as provided under section 565.033.

Official source: Missouri Revisor of Statutes. Reproduced from public-domain Missouri statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.