Is a specific date of occurrence required for a felony charge?

Question

1. Can a person be charged for a felony in the state of Missouri without a specific date ever being stated that the crime occurred?

   Example: "Defendant committed a felony between the dates of Jan 1 2023 and Dec 31 2023 by beating the victim and causing serious bodily injury."

2. How can a defendant properly provide a defense if there is no specific date given that the crime occurred?

3. What would be legal arguments to dismiss such vague charges?

Answer 1

Assume that Olivia Owner returns to her holiday cottage after some months in the city. She finds it burgled and files a report. Through invoices and serial numbers, she can provide credible evidence that she owns certain items.

Some time later Barry Burglar is caught breaking into a different house. A search of Barry's house turns up a computer with the serial number from Olivia's report hidden in a closet.

So can Barry be charged with breaking into Olivia's cottage, even if nobody can say with any certainty when it happened? Probably. Barry could say that the prosecution did not prove their case because the charge is so vague, and hope for the jury to accept that. Or Barry could claim that he purchased the computer at a garage sale some weeks ago. The success of such a defense may get more likely if the prosecution cannot pin the date of the supposed burglary down and there are large gaps in the timeline.

Answer 2

1. Can a person be charged for a felony in the state of Missouri without a specific date ever being stated that the crime occurred.

Yes. Some time frame is necessary, but it need not be a specific date. For example, many murders that take place in remote places can be narrowed down to some time frame, but not a specific date. The answer from o.m. gives another good example.

2. How can a defendant properly provide a defense if there is no specific date given that the crime occurred.

The same way that a defendant would in any other case.

3. What would be legal means to dismiss such vague charges?

A legally insufficient indictment can be challenged in a pre-trial motion filed by the defense. The question doesn't identify a ground for a legally insufficient indictment, but a small percentage of indictments are dismissed every year on the grounds that they are legally insufficicent.