TOKAR, JEFFREY

General Information

DOB: September 29, 1964
Race: White
Gender: Male

Crime and Trial

County of conviction: Warren
Number of counts: 1
Race of victim: White
Gender of victim: Male
Date of crime: March 11, 1992
Date of sentencing: September 7, 1993
Date of execution: March 6, 2002

Legal status:

Last counsel of record:
Elizabeth Carlyle
200 SE Douglas, Suite 200
Lee's Summit, MO 64063
816-525-2050 / 816-525-6540

Michael J. Gorla
720 Olive St., Suite 2301
St. Louis, MO 63101
314-621-1616

Last judicial decision:

--Petition for habeas corpus and application for stay of execution (filed pursuant to U.S. Supreme Court original jurisdiction) denied by In re Tokar, 535 U.S. 922 (2002).

Reported Opinions:

-- Denial of habeas affirmed by Tokar v. Bowersox, 198 F.3d 1039 (8th Cir. 1999), cert. denied, 531 U.S. 886, rehearing denied, 531 U.S. 1031 (2000).

--Habeas corpus denied by Tokar v. Bowersox, 1 F. Supp. 2d 986 (E.D. Mo. 1998).

--Conviction, sentence and denial of post-conviction relief affirmed by State v. Tokar , 918 S.W.2d 753 (Mo. banc 1996), cert. denied, 519 U.S. 933 (1996).

--Petition for habeas corpus and application for stay of execution (filed pursuant to U.S. Supreme Court original jurisdiction) denied by In re Tokar, 535 U.S. 922 (2002).

Significant legal issues:

-- Alleged procedural bar of claim that counsel performed ineffectively by not seeking suppression of evidence discovered as a result of an illegal arrest, where claim was presented to state courts through a motion for rehearing and a motion to recall the mandate, and state courts summarily denied claim without resting on procedural ground

-- Probable cause supporting arrest of defendant

-- Vagueness of "outrageously and wantonly vile, horrible, and inhuman" aggravating circumstance, and harmlessness of error in light of federal courts' view that Missouri is not a "weighing" state

-- Admission of penalty-phase evidence that Mr. Tokar had AIDS

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