Almost all of Missouri’s laws on crime will be rewritten and reordered in the Missouri
Almost all of Missouri’s laws on crime will be rewritten and reordered in the Senate during the next several days. I’s a massive job begun about seven years ago when the Missouri Bar started reviewing Missouri’s criminal code and found it a jumbled mess. A huge revision bill was introduced in the legislature three years ago. It has taken until now to craft an 1100- page document that is before the Senate. Sponsor Jolie Justus says it’s the first large-scale revision of Missouri’s criminal laws since 1979.
She says no new crimes are created. Nothing is decriminalized. A new felony is being created that plugs a gap in sentencing that has bothered prosecutors for years.
The bill is so massive that Justus and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Dixon have spent an hour and ten minutes explaining what it does—and they have only reached page 128. Two sections will be pulled out. They deal with concealed weapons and with weapons offenses. Dixon says they have been withdrawn until the legislature decides what it wants to do with gun legislation this year.
Debate on the bill is expected to be lengthy.
