SLOAN, JEFFREY PAUL
General Information
DOB: April 26, 1966
Race: White
Gender: Male
Crime and Trial
County of conviction: Clay
Number of counts: Four
Race of victim: White/white/white/white
Gender of victim: Female/male/male/male
Date of crime: December 11, 1985
Date of sentencing: April 9, 1987
Date of execution: February 21, 1996
Legal status:
Trial Counsel:
Lawrence Lerner
Last counsel of record:
Douglas S. Laird
Polsinelli & White
700 W. 47th St., Suite 1000
Kansas City, MO 64112
816-753-1000
Last judicial decision:
--Denial of second petition for habeas corpus (as successive) affirmed by Sloan v. Bowersox, 77 F.3d 234 (8th Cir.), cert. denied, 516 U.S. 1142 (1996).
Reported Opinions:
--Conviction and sentence affirmed on direct appeal by State v. Sloan, 756 S.W.2d 503 (Mo. banc 1988), cert. denied, 489 U.S. 1040 (1989).
--Denial of post-conviction relief affirmed by Sloan v. State, 779 S.W.2d 580 (Mo. banc 1989), cert. denied, 494 U.S. 1060 (1990).
--Denial of habeas affirmed by Sloan v. Delo, 54 F.3d 1371 (8th Cir. 1995), cert. denied, 516 U.S. 1056 (1996).
--Denial of second petition for habeas corpus (as successive) affirmed by Sloan v. Bowersox, 77 F.3d 234 (8th Cir.), cert. denied, 516 U.S. 1142 (1996).
Significant legal issues:
--Trial counsel's failure to adequately investigate Mr. Sloan's mental health and familial history, and, in particular, to interview two State-funded experts who opined on Mr. Sloan's competence
--Trial counsel's failure to investigate and assert a defense of diminished capacity
--Harmlessness of unconstitutional vagueness of the "depravity of mind" aggravating circumstance in light of other aggravating circumstances found to exist by the jury
--alleged procedural default by state appellate counsel in failing to assert a claim regarding the penalty phase instruction's requirement that mitigating circumstances be found unanimously by the jury in order to be given effect; instruction violated the holding of Mills v. Maryland, but Mills had not been issued when Mr. Sloan's case was pending on direct appeal