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Second Circuit Judge Russell Steele was assigned as a special judge to sit with the Western District of the Missouri Court of Appeals to hear oral arguments and participate in deciding the case of State of Missouri v. Vincent Minner during the visit of the Court of Appeals to Kirksville this week.  The Court of Appeals has established a tradition of hearing cases in Kirksville each year.  The oral arguments were held on the campus of Truman State University.  

           
The case to which Judge Steele was assigned involved an appeal from a first degree murder conviction against the Defendant in the Boone County Circuit Court.  The primary issue on appeal involved the trial court’s admission of a dying declaration of the deceased victim identifying the Defendant as his assailant and which the Defendant contends violated his constitutional Sixth Amendment right to confront witnesses against him.  A written opinion by the Court of Appeals will be issued in the next several weeks.

Judge Steele has previously been assigned as a special judge to sit with the Court of Appeals and the Missouri Supreme Court.