One of the sponsors of the massive restructuring of Missouri’s criminal laws says Governor Nixon’s office has said it will not veto the bill. The deadline for action is early next week.
Nixon had expressed concerns about the size of the bill–608 pages–and the possibility a proposal that large could contain numerous mistakes. But supporters of the recodification say the bill has been through an exhaustive eight-year long development process by representatives of various disciplines within the legal profession and a three-year evolutionary process in the legislature. They also note that the new code will not go into effect for a couple of years, giving the legislature time to fix any problems.
Kansas City Senator Jolie Justus has told the Missouri Bar’s Board of Governors she and co-sponsor Bob Dixon of Springfield have been assured Nixon will not veto the bill.
The Bar’s Criminal Justice Committee, however, says the work is not finished. Co-Chairmen Jason Lamb with the Missouri Office of Prosecution Services and Gwenna Robinson with the Missouri Public Defenders Office say several issues remain to be examined as part of an ongoing effort to move Missouri’s criminal law system into the Twenty-first Century.
