546.400. Verdict must show degree of guilt. - Missouri Statutes

Verdict must show degree of guilt.

546.400. Upon the trial of any indictment for any offensewhere by law there may be conviction for different degrees ofsuch offense, the jury, if they convict the defendant of a degreeof the offense inferior to the offense alleged in the indictment,shall specify in their verdict of what degree of the offense theyfind the defendant guilty.

(RSMo 1939 § 4090)

Prior revisions: 1929 § 3701; 1919 § 4045; 1909 § 5251

(1960) In prosecutions for stealing personal property of over fifty dollars in value defendant contending value was less than fifty dollars, the court instructed the jury to fix the punishment in accordance with the way they found the value of the property and the verdict finding the defendant "guilty of stealing and assess his punishment at two and one-half years in the Missouri department of corrections" was responsive and free from ambiguity as the offense of stealing does not have different degrees but different penalties. State v. McCarthy (Mo.), 336 S.W.2d 411.