Nearly a month of hearings wrapped up Monday into a Missouri Senate bill that would revise the state’s criminal code. But it may already be too late to get the bill to the governor’s desk this year.
The bill is over a thousand pages long. It would create new classes of felonies and misdemeanors, give judges more flexibility in handing down sentences, and modernize the language used in the code. Republican Bob Dixon of Springfield chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee. He says senate members may need more than six weeks to decide whether to pass the bill.
“It depends on what response we get from members, but something of this magnitude I’m very hesitant to rush,” Dixon said.
The sponsor, Democrat Jolie Justus of Kansas City, says the issue has gotten lots of attention over the past year, but adds that she’s willing to wait another year if that’s what it takes to get the state’s criminal code updated.
“For the past 30-plus years we’ve just enacted new crimes, and they’re just all over the statute,” Justus said. “What we want to do is bring it all under one roof. We’re just trying to make sure that we have gender-neutral language, that we’re taking into account modern technology changes.”
The Senate Judiciary Committee took no action Monday on the criminal code bill. A House committee passed a similar bill last week.
