JEFFERSON CITY — Sen. Joseph Keaveny, D-St. Louis, is hosting a Criminal Procedure Seminar for senators and members of their staff at 5 p.m. tomorrow (Jan. 28) in Senate Committee Room 2. Following the seminar, senators and guest speakers will be available for comment.

This seminar will provide legislators and staff members with an overview of how criminal procedure legislation can provide state law enforcement agencies procedural fixes. The proposed procedural fixes have been proven to reduce the risk of wrongful convictions in relation to eyewitness misidentification, collection of forensic evidence and proper recording of interrogations.

“These procedures can empower law enforcement to further avoid wrongful convictions and spare the state costly payouts resulting from exonerations,” Sen. Keaveny said.

The event will begin with a bill review conducted by Sen. Keaveny, followed by several speakers, including Professors Paul Litton and Rodney Uphoff of the University of Missouri School of Law and members of the assessment team that compiled the American Bar Association’s 2012 assessment report, Evaluating Fairness and Accuracy in State Death Penalty Systems.

Only members of the Senate, House leadership, the House Judiciary Committee and/or its staffers, as well as members of law enforcement, will be admitted to the seminar. Speakers and select senators will be available to speak with media after the event.

For more information regarding this event, contact Sen. Keaveny’s Capitol office at
(573) 751-3599.