Section 23.38 Victims Under 14 Years of Age

• Library: Criminal Practice 2012 Supp

A. (§23.38) Victims Under 14 Years of Age

Section 566.025, RSMo 1994 (since amended in 2000), which allowed the admission of certain other-crimes evidence in prosecutions under Chapters 566 or 568, RSMo, involving a victim under 14 years of age, was finally determined to be unconstitutional. That statute provided:

In prosecutions under chapter 566 or 568 involving a victim under fourteen years of age, whether or not age is an element of the crime for which the defendant is on trial, evidence that the defendant has committed other charged or uncharged crimes involving victims under fourteen years of age shall be admissible for the purpose of showing the propensity of the defendant to commit the crime or crimes with which he is charged, provided that such evidence involves acts that occurred within ten years before or after the act or acts for which the defendant is being tried.

In State v. Burns, 978 S.W.2d 759, 760 (Mo. banc 1998), the Supreme Court held that this attempt by the legislature to allow the...