JEFFERSON CITY — Legislation sponsored by Sen. Joe Keaveny, D-St. Louis, to help streamline Missouri’s criminal justice system is slated to receive a hearing today in the Senate Judiciary and Civil and Criminal Jurisprudence Committee. The hearing is scheduled upon recess or evening adjournment of the Missouri Senate and will be conducted in the Senate Lounge, located on the third floor of the State Capitol.

The bill (SB 162) addresses five key areas of the criminal justice system: eyewitness identification procedures, post-conviction DNA testing, jailhouse informant testimony, custodial interrogations, and biological evidence procedures. Some of these issues were noted as areas needing improvement in Missouri’s criminal procedures system, according to a report published by the American Bar Association (ABA) in 2012.

“With science and technology available to help professionals thoroughly investigate a crime to the best of their ability, therefore allowing judges to administer the most accurate sentences possible, Missouri needs to jump on board to modernize its criminal procedures system,” Sen. Keaveny said. “It’s horrific when crimes occur in our state, and, for the sake of victims, defendants, and their families, we need to eliminate margins for error in our criminal justice system and ensure fair sentences are administered.”

In drafting the legislation, Sen. Keaveny collaborated with experts who served on the ABA’s Missouri Assessment on the Death Penalty team, as well as law enforcement officials and defense attorneys.
For more information about SB 162, visit the Missouri Senate website at www.senate.mo.gov.