| |
Morley Swingle Biography
H. Morley Swingle, 52, has been the Prosecuting Attorney of Cape Girardeau County since January 1, 1987. His sixth term began in January of 2007.
He was born in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. His father, Sgt. Morley G. Swingle, was a Missouri State Highway Patrolman stationed in Cape Girardeau from 1939 until his death in 1964. His mother, the former Alberta Pointer, taught for many years at various schools in Cape Girardeau and the surrounding area and later served as the librarian for the Crystal City Public Library for a number of years.
Swingle attended Campus Grade School and Cape Central Junior High. In 1968, his mother married Samuel Howard Crowe, Sr., a chemical engineer in Crystal City, Missouri, and Swingle moved to Crystal City, Missouri, where he attended high school and graduated in 1973. He earned an A.B. in English from the University of Missouri-Columbia in 1977, and a J.D. from the same school in 1980.
While in law school, Swingle was a member of the Missouri Law Review, a member of the Order of Barristers, and Chairman of the Board of Advocates. During his third year in law school, he and his teammate Doug Harpool (later to become a Missouri State Representative) won first place in the Regionals of the National Appellate Advocacy Competition in Kansas City and then represented the Eighth Circuit at the National Competition in San Francisco. While in law school, Swingle served three months as an intern for Judge Robert T. Donnelly of the Missouri Supreme Court. His law review article on nonsmokers' rights won the Guy Thompson Award for being the best student comment written that year. Swingle also won the Roscoe Anderson Award for "excellence in moot court." In 2007, the law school awarded him its Order of the Coif award.
After graduating from law school, Swingle worked three years as an associate at the Spradling & Spradling law firm in Cape Girardeau. While in private practice he helped establish the law of nonsmokers' rights by representing the plaintiff in an action seeking a smoke-free workplace in Smith v. Western Electric Company, 643 S.W.2d 10, 37 A.L.R.4th 473 (Mo. App. E.D. 1982), and later taught nonsmokers' rights for the American Lung Association..
In December, 1982, Swingle joined the Prosecuting Attorney's Office as a full-time Assistant Prosecuting Attorney. In November of 1986 he was elected Prosecuting Attorney, taking office January 1, 1987.
Swingle has prosecuted thousands of cases, from misdemeanors to death penalty murder cases. He has tried over 128 jury trials. He has prosecuted more than 70 homicide cases. He has handled 29 appellate cases.
Swingle is a recognized expert in criminal law, both locally and nationally.
He has published over twenty articles on criminal law in various publications including the Missouri Law Review and the Journal of the Missouri Bar and has written one of the chapters of the Missouri Bar's book Criminal Practice. His 1995 Bar Journal article won the W. Oliver Rasch Award from the Missouri Bar Association for being "the outstanding" article published that year. His article on criminalizing invasion of privacy drew the interest of Court TV as well as legislators around the country. His set of law tapes Search and Seizure Law in Missouri was published in 1998 by Missouri Law Tape, Inc.
Since 1994, Swingle has taught "New Developments in Criminal Law" at the annual training session for the State's trial judges at the Missouri Judicial College, and he has also taught criminal law training sessions for the Missouri Prosecuting Attorney's Association, the Missouri Highway Patrol Academy, the Missouri Bar Association, the Missouri Municipal and Associate Judges' Association, the Cape Girardeau County Sheriff's Department, the U.S. Department of Justice, the Kansas District Attorney's Association, the Iowa Prosecuting Attorney's Association, the Louisiana District Attorney's Association, the Law Enforcement Academy at Southeast Missouri State University, and various other continuing legal education programs.
In 1992, Swingle was selected as one of only 50 prosecutors in the country to be nominated for and to graduate from the Advanced Course for Prosecutors at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia.
Since April 27, 1999, Swingle has served on the Missouri Supreme Court's Committee on Procedure in Criminal cases (formerly called the Committee on Jury Instructions and Charges-Criminal). The Committee drafts standardized forms for criminal charges and jury instructions, and writes Supreme Court Rules pertaining to criminal procedure.
Swingle is a member of the Board of Directors of the Cape Girardeau County Major Case Squad and is especially proud of his good working relationship with all law enforcement agencies in the county. He has personally drafted, at all hours of the day or night, over 400 search warrants.
Missouri Governors have praised Swingle for his "exemplary and inspirational" work as Prosecuting Attorney and have called him one of Missouri's "premier experts" in criminal law. In 1989, Swingle personally argued to the Missouri Court of Appeals a case establishing the constitutionality of DWI checkpoints in Missouri. In 1990, he personally argued to the Missouri Supreme Court a case establishing the proper standard to use for probable cause in obtaining search warrants using anonymous tips. In 1992 the Missouri Mothers Against Drunk Driving presented him with an award for his vigorous prosecution of DWI cases, and in 2003 MADD named him Missouri's Prosecutor of the Year. In 1995, he personally argued to the Missouri Supreme Court the case establishing the constitutionality of Missouri's hazing statute, and later appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show and Dateline in connection with that case. In 1995, he wrote the first draft of Missouri's invasion of privacy criminal statute. In 1997, he wrote an amendment to Missouri's driving while intoxicated law closing a loophole under which alcohol-related manslaughter cases had not counted as prior driving while intoxicated convictions for penalty-enhancement purposes. In 2004 Swingle personally argued to both the Missouri Court of Appeals and the Missouri Supreme Court the case upholding the right of police officers to seek a search warrant for the blood of a drunk driver who has refused to voluntarily submit to a breath test.
Swingle has been a vigorous advocate for women in domestic violence cases. In 1988, he served on the Governor's Task Force on Domestic Violence, resulting in the creation of Missouri's adult abuse laws. He has taught seminars on domestic violence and child abuse cases for both the Judicial College and the Missouri Office of Prosecution Services. In 2003, he taught counselors at domestic violence shelters how to qualify as expert witnesses in court at a seminar at Washington University sponsored by The Missouri Coalition Against Domestic Violence. In 2002, he published a bar journal article: "Unhappy Families: Prosecuting & Defending Domestic Violence Cases" in the Journal of the Missouri Bar. In 2004, a study conducted by the University of Missouri's Schools of Law, Medicine and Journalism listed the Cape Girardeau County Prosecuting Attorney's Office as one of the most progressive and effective in the State in the handling of domestic violence cases.
Swingle has been appointed Special Prosecutor for many other counties in Missouri when the local prosecutor was unable to handle the case, and has tried cases throughout Southeast Missouri.
Swingle has served as President of the Cape Girardeau Friends of the Public Library, and has served on the Board of Directors of the Cape River Heritage Museum. He is a member of Mystery Writers of America. His first novel, a mystery entitled The Gold of Cape Girardeau, was published in 2002 and was nominated for the 2002 Michael Shaara Award for Excellence in Civil War Fiction and won won the 2005 Governor's Book Award from the Missouri Humanities Council. His true crime/humor book Scoundrels to the Hoosegow: Perry Mason Moments and Entertaining Cases From the Files of a Prosecuting Attorney aims to educate the public about the role of the American prosecutor while entertaining them with good stories. His most recent book, Bootheel Man, is another novel combining mystery, history and law. It was published in November of 2007..
He lives in Cape Girardeau with his wife, Candy, and their two children.
Of his work, Swingle says: "As Prosecuting Attorney, I have the most rewarding and challenging and interesting job in the County. The prosecutor, more than any one person, can make the biggest difference in ensuring aggressive, honest and fair enforcement of the criminal laws in his jurisdiction. I am delighted that the people of Cape Girardeau County have given me this opportunity to have a positive impact upon our community." |
|
|
|