SB 924 - This act makes changes to the criminal justice system.

SURCHARGE ON CRIMINAL CASES - The act creates a $5 surcharge on all criminal court cases to be used for the "Missouri Laboratory Oversight Committee Revolving Fund" and the "Justice Improvement Fund" (Section 488.5022).

ELECTRONICALLY RECORDING POLICE INTERVIEWS - The act mandates that any interview conducted by a peace officer in a police facility for a person that may have witnessed a first degree murder, second degree murder, voluntary or involuntary manslaughter crime be electronically recorded. This act also requires any interview of a suspect of these crimes to be electronically recorded. This act defines electronically recorded. This act outlines the requirements that must be met for any statement obtained at a police facility to be admissible in a criminal proceeding. The state may rebut the presumption of the inadmissibility of a statement not electronically recorded with good cause. Under this act, an electronic recording of a statement is admissible against the defendant if the statement was obtained in accordance of laws of this state, those of another state, or the United States. This act requires law enforcement officials to preserve electronic recordings until the defendant's conviction is final and no appeals remain available (Section 491.800).

ELECTRONICALLY RECORDING INDIVIDUALS WITH SIGNIFICANT LEARNING DISABILITIES AND THOSE UNDER THE AGE OF TWELVE - The act requires any interview or questioning relating to a felony, which is conducted by a peace officer with a person whom the peace officer has a reasonable belief that the person has significant learning disabilities, or a person under the age of 12, shall be electronically recorded (Section 491.803).

JAIL HOUSE SNITCH - The act requires prosecutors using the testimony of a witness who was incarcerated at the same time as the defendant to obtain an affidavit from the witness containing: (1) listing of specific consideration given by the state; (2) requests by law enforcement about cooperating; (3) listing of previous criminal cases that the witness has testified in; (4) listing of cases that the witness has been a state's witness and the consideration given; and (5) any media account of the charges that the witness may have observed (Section 491.806).

The Department of Public Safety shall establish a registry to track state's witnesses on the MULES system. The prosecutor will supply the information, including a written copy of the witness statement. The registry is only an investigative database and is not a public record.

LAW ENFORCEMENT CERTIFICATION TO PROSECUTOR - The act requires that the law enforcement officer in charge of the principal investigating agency certify to the prosecutor a list of all evidence, including a list of witnesses. This shall be done within 10 days of presentment to the prosecutor and the certification is an ongoing obligation until the investigation is closed (Section 491.809).

TESTING AS EVIDENCE - This act defines forensic testing and allows the accused to have the right to argue that the lack of fingerprints or other evidence from forensic testing which was conducted to connect the defendant to the crime is relevant to the state's burden or may be consistent with an alternative theory of crime (Section 546.065).

EYEWITNESS EVIDENCE PROTOCOL TO FINDER OF FACT - The act allows a significant violation of the eyewitness evidence protocol to result in the finder of fact being instructed as to the risks of mistaken identification. However, no violation of the eyewitness evidence protocol shall provide the basis for a court to grant a motion to exclude any eyewitness identification. This section also allows the jury to be instructed as to the reliability of eyewitness evidence, if used in trial (Section 546.070).

EYEWITNESS EVIDENCE FORMS - The act gives the Director of Public Safety the authority to provide standardized eyewitness evidence forms for use by law enforcement in all cases where an individual was observed by the witness and the identity of the suspect is unknown by the witness (Section 590.700).

EYEWITNESS EVIDENCE PROTOCOL - The act requires the director of public safety to promulgate an eyewitness evidence protocol. There are seven requirements set out in this section. This section requires peace officers to follow this section when obtaining eyewitness evidence (Section 590.702).

DNA EVIDENCE - The act requires possible DNA evidence must be preserved by the Highway Patrol for all felonies. Previously, this section only was limited to specific crimes (Section 650.056).

LABORATORY OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE - This act creates a seven member "Laboratory Oversight Committee". This committee will provide independent review of state crime lab operations. The committee will have the power to: (1) appoint an ombudsman to each crime laboratory to resolve conflict; (2) issue public reprimands to laboratories and individuals; (3) sanction a laboratory having multiple violations of good scientific procedure; and (4) administer oaths, subpoena witnesses, issue subpoenas duces tecum and require production of documents and records (Section 650.500).

LAB REPORTS - The act mandates that every lab report shall be signed by the individual conducting the test. The report shall also contain a listing of outside agencies which have currently accredited the lab. The report shall also certify if the testing was performed in accordance with national or association standards (Section 650.505).

This section also makes it a class B felony for any public employee or lab personnel to knowingly alter or falsify laboratory test results for the purpose of changing the test results.

MISSOURI LABORATORY OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE REVOLVING FUND - The act sets up the "Missouri Laboratory Oversight Committee Revolving Fund" that consists of a portion of the moneys collected from the $5 criminal surcharge listed in Section 488.5022 of this act. Specifically, four dollars of the five dollar surcharge goes the fund. One-half of the money shall be directed to conduct DNA testing of currently incarcerated individuals and to improve the DNA database. One-fourth of the money shall be used for accreditation testing and auditing of crime lab facilities. The remaining one-fourth shall be used by the Laboratory Oversight Committee to obtain new equipment and to provide training for Missouri crime lab personnel (Section 650.507).

JUSTICE IMPROVEMENT FUND - The act sets up the "Justice Improvement Fund" that consists of a portion of the moneys collected from the $5 criminal surcharge listed in Section 488.5022 of this act. Specifically, one dollar of the five dollar surcharge goes to the fund. The fund is designed to reimburse law enforcement agencies for necessary expenses accrued to comply with the requirements of these sections. The Director of the Department of Public Safety administers the fund and is granted rulemaking power to do so. If the fund balance exceeds $30,000, the excess money shall be used to grant scholarships for law enforcement training. Scholarships will be granted to those officers or candidates whose departments require them to personally accrue the cost of training. The officer or candidate must stay in the profession for four years following the completion of his or her training or he or she must reimburse the fund for the scholarship money awarded on a pro-rata basis for each month he or she is not employed in law enforcement that is less than the required forty-eight months (Section 650.509).

CRIME LAB RECORDS - The act requires state crime laboratories to keep records on testing methodology, quality assurance, internal auditing, technical reviews, instrument maintenance, technician lab notes and written external auditing procedures for a period of twelve years (Section 650.510).

SALARY COMPENSATION LEVEL - The act requires the Director of Public Safety to promulgate a standard salary compensation level for all Missouri law enforcement officers (Section 650.515).
SUSAN HENDERSON