Gregory Bowman, State v. Bowman, 337 S.W.3d 679 (Mo. 2011)

Invalid Aggravating Circumstances
Gregory Bowman was convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of Velda Rumfelt. Bowman was arrested for Rumfelt’s murder 30 years after her death when DNA from the crime scene was compared to Bowman’s DNA. On direct appeal, the Missouri Supreme Court reversed Bowman’s death sentence because two of the six aggravating factors found by the jury related to prior murder convictions that had been vacated on appeal. Bowman argued that this constituted excessive victim impact evidence under Payne. Relying on Johnson v. Mississippi, 486 U.S. 578 (1988) and State v. McFadden, 216 S.W.3d 673 (Mo. banc 2007), the Court concluded, “Even if the prosecution’s evidence regarding the underlying facts of Bowman’s two prior murder convictions were properly admissible as non-statutory aggravating prior bad acts, the Court cannot assume that the jury’s weighing process and sense of responsibility were unaffected by its knowledge that Bowman previously had been convicted of two murders.” 337 S.W.3d at 692.