State v. Nations p. 145 MO App, 1984 Facts: Sandra Nations owns a disco, police found a 16 year old girl dancing in the club and charged Nations with “endangering the welfare of a child less than seventeen years old.” In court the girl said D had asked her for her ID and she was going to get it when police took her into custody, D corroborated her story. D was convicted and is now appealing based on the provision in the statute which says D must have “knowingly” committed the crime. Knowingly is a term of art whose meaning is limited to the definition given to it by our present Criminal Code. Literally read, the Code defines knowingly as actual knowledge – “A person „acts knowingly,‟ or with knowledge, . . .when he is aware . . . that those circumstances exist. Overturned The Modern Penal Code includes willful blindness as knowingly. If the person knows of high probability then he is considered to know. But the legislature has not adopted this broader definition of knowingly. This is known from the State Criminal Code. Therefore the state did not prove that the club owner had actual knowledge the child was less than seventeen.
Rule:
Holding: Reasoning: