tim chaney
Tim Chaney, State v. Chaney, 967 S.W.2d 47 (Mo. 1998)
Death Penalty Disproportionate
Tim Chaney was convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of his stepdaughter’s friend, 12-year-old Michelle Winter. No direct evidence connected Chaney to the crime. On direct appeal, the Missouri Supreme Court resentenced Chaney to life without parole pursuant to its statutorily mandated proportionality review under Mo. Stat. Ann. § 565.035. The Missouri statute requires the court to consider “the strength of the evidence” and “the defendant,” both of which were dispositive for the Court. 967 S.W.2d at 60. In none of the similar death penalty cases the court reviewed
was the conviction based primarily on trace and pathological evidence of the type and quantity presented here. In this case there is no eyewitness, confession, admission, document, fingerprint or blood evidence directly pointing to the defendant. Neither is there evidence of defendant’s involvement in any similar or related crimes from which one might infer his involvement here.
Id. The Court was also persuaded by evidence that Chaney had no prior criminal convictions, was a good father, stepfather, and husband, and had a good reputation among those he worked with in his optical business. Id. Judge White dissented, joined by Judges Robertson and Covington, because they would have overturned Chaney’s conviction altogether for insufficient evidence.