Nixon pressed to sign new criminal code

Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon needs to sign the just-passed criminal code bill, its sponsors said Tuesday during a Capitol news conference with more than two dozen supporters looking on.

The bill was delivered to Nixon's office Monday afternoon. He must sign or veto it within 15 days - giving lawmakers time to override a veto before the legislative session ends May 16.

Cole County Sheriff Greg White agreed after the news conference that Nixon should "sign it and, if it needs (more) work in a special session, look at a special session - if he has any issues with it."

Nixon has said several times "there is simply no room for error" with the bill, and has questioned its size as creating a greater chance for errors to occur. His office on Tuesday did not return a request for a comment about the bill.

Without naming the governor, state Rep. Chris Kelly, D-Columbia, said: "The theory out there by people who are not happy with this is, there is no room for error.

"That presumes that there is no error in the current criminal code today - which, of course, everyone knows is false."

He pointed to a law being changed by the new code bill.

"I think, and my colleagues believe, that it is an error for a 12 year-old girl to be able to consent to sexual conduct," Kelly said. "That should not exist in law. We all agreed to that and we fixed that."

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Dixon, R-Springfield, said signing the bill into law will help Missouri's criminal justice system do a better job.

"We need to deal justly and we need to deal swiftly with those who commit crimes - especially violent ones," Dixon said. "A clear, concise and understandable criminal code provides judges, prosecutors and public defenders with the tools they need to deal effectively with those violent offenders."

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Stanley Cox, R-Sedalia, noted the bill would replace the current criminal code that last was rewritten completely in 1979.

"We know the General Assembly passes lots of laws every year," Cox said, "and the code becomes a disorganized code."

He said the new law strengthens the definition of "dangerous felony" - crimes that require someone to serve at least 85 percent of any prison sentence imposed after a conviction - to include crimes like first-degree kidnapping and second-degree assault of "special victims" such as law officers.

"Punishing the violent offenders is really, really one important aspect of this code," Cox said.

Stone County Prosecutor Matt Selby, president-elect of the Missouri Association of Prosecuting Attorneys, said he isn't "aware of a single thing that would be detrimental to prosecution in this bill."

Although many think his southwest Missouri county is a quiet, peaceful place, Selby noted its population is "fast-growing" along with the region.

"At one time earlier this year, I had eight murders pending," he said.

And having the rewritten criminal code should make prosecutors' jobs easier to do.

"In my 24 years as a prosecutor, this is the strongest public safety measurements I've ever seen coming out of Jeff City," Selby said, "and it absolutely seems like something that we should be pushing straight through to get out there - to give prosecutors the tools they need to protect citizens and, again, have appropriate punishment for crimes."

Although the governor has worried the bill might contain surprise mistakes, Senate sponsor Jolie Justus, D-Kansas City, said it's been thoroughly reviewed by a special Missouri Bar committee for five years, and by lawmakers for another three - and doesn't go into effect until Jan. 1, 2017.

"This is a document that criminal defense lawyers, public defenders and prosecutors agreed on," she explained. "Getting that group of folks to agree on anything is quite a task."

Still, White said, he's "confident" some errors may be found.

"By allowing that two-year implementation with that ongoing committee to constantly work on tweaking it, I think we'll come out with a better product."