Section 27.28 Suspended Imposition of Sentence Not a Conviction

• Library: Criminal Practice 2012 Supp

C. (§27.28) Suspended Imposition of Sentence Not a Conviction

When a defendant has been found guilty of a felony or a misdemeanor, under § 557.011.2(3), RSMo 2000, the court may suspend the imposition of sentence, with or without placing the defendant on probation.

In the past, a suspended imposition of sentence (SIS) was a “means of relieving a person who is guilty of a crime from the stigma of a conviction when the court in its discretion feels that the ends of
justice warrant the court’s forbearance.” State ex rel. Peach v. Tillman,615 S.W.2d 514, 517 (Mo. App. E.D. 1981). But now the Missouri legislature has made it so that an SIS “carries with it the stain of certain undesirable attributes of a conviction.” State v. Lynch,679 S.W.2d 858, 861 (Mo. banc 1984). Under certain statutes containing the phrase “finding of guilty” or...