Missouri owes Zachary Snyder's children $1 million - and it should be required to pay now, an attorney told a three-judge Missouri appeals court panel Thursday afternoon.
But the state's lawyer told the judges that state government has appealed the $1 million federal court jury verdict, so the state isn't required to pay the debt, yet.
Court records and newspaper stories show Snyder, 23, was killed Feb. 14, 2008, as Steven R. Julian, 46, a Corrections department fugitive investigator, attempted to detain Snyder as a parole absconder.
Snyder's probation violation involved a drugs case, but he had previous arrests for car theft and assault.
Julian fired his service handgun as he was preparing to handcuff Snyder. The younger man made a sudden move and Julian thought his life was in danger.
The shot hit Snyder in the back, below the shoulder blade, and killed him.
Julian was charged in Cape Girardeau County with involuntary manslaughter, but a Callaway County jury heard the 2008 case and found Julian not guilty after deliberating for 44 minutes.
Snyder's family sued in U.S. District Court in Cape Girardeau, arguing for civil rights violations, wrongful death and excessive force. The jury in 2012 case delivered a $1 million judgment against the state and for Snyder's children.
When the state didn't pay, the family sued in Cole County on Aug. 30, 2013. But Presiding Circuit Judge Pat Joyce last February upheld the state's motion to dismiss the case and later ruled the family's lawsuit "fails to state a claim" as a basis for the suit.
So Albright appealed the case to the state's Kansas City-based Western District, which heard arguments in the case during Thursday's visit to Lincoln University's Scruggs University Center.
"There is a law in Missouri that, for claims against state employees during the course and scope of their employment, you collect from the state's Legal Expense Fund," Poplar Bluff attorney John M. Albright told LU students and faculty before beginning his oral argument.
"The question is, do we have to wait until they complete the court of appeals? Or does the statute that says "a final judgment' mean that we're allowed to execute prior to the completion of the appeal?"
Albright told the judges the case involves "a straightforward issue" with a statute that clearly says payments from the fund "shall be available for the payment of any claim or any amount required by any final judgment."
But Robert Presson, a former assistant attorney general representing the state, argued that courts use the words "final judgment" in several different ways, and the appeals court should focus on the word "judgment," not the word "any" as the family has done.
"We have to look at the context," he argued, noting the state has appealed the federal jury's verdict to the U.S. Court of Appeals in St. Louis.
The court didn't say when it might rule, although it often decides its cases within two months.
Some information used in this story came from stories published in the Southeast Missourian newspaper, Cape Girardeau.