Criminal Law
SS SCS HCS HB 1026 — Funeral Protests. Makes it a class B misdemeanor to picket or protest in front of or about any location at which a funeral is held within one hour prior to the commencement of any funeral and until one hour following the cessation of any funeral. Any subsequent violation will be a class A misdemeanor. Currently, a person is prohibited from picketing or protesting in front of or about any church, cemetery, or funeral establishment.
The bill contains an emergency clause. (Signed 7/6/06) (See also SB 578)
HCS HB 1053 — Arrest Records. Currently, access to official court records for persons arrested and charged when the case is subsequently nolle prossed, dismissed, or the accused is found not guilty or imposition of sentence is suspended, is limited to law enforcement agencies, child care agencies, residential care facilities, and skilled nursing facilities. This bill authorizes access to official court records to victims of offenses against the family found in Chapters 566 and 568, RSMo. The official records will be released only for the purpose of using the records in the victim's own judicial proceeding.
(Signed 6/29/06)
HB 1204 — Duties of Jailers. Authorizes jailers to serve arrest warrants on individuals who are already inmates in the custody of the facility in which the jailer is employed. (Signed 6/9/06)
HCS HB 1559 — Donation of Canned or Perishable Food. (See Commercial Law)
CCS SS SCS HCS HB 1698, 1236, 995, 1362 & 1290 — Sexual Offenders. Changes the laws regarding sexual offenders. In its main provisions, the bill:
(1) Requires the State Highway Patrol to operate a toll-free telephone number to disseminate information regarding individuals registered as sexual offenders;
(2) Requires sexual offenders to provide law enforcement officials the date of their birth; their physical description and that of their vehicle; nature and dates of the offenses requiring the offender to register; and the date in which the offender was released from the Department of Health and Senior Services, prison, or jail or placed on parole, supervised release, or probation;
(3) Requires a licensed health care professional who delivers a baby or performs an abortion to report prima facie evidence of statutory rape or evidence that a patient was the victim of a sexual offense;
(4) Establishes procedures for search warrants and subpoenas issued for records that are in the actual or constructive possession of a foreign corporation that provides electronic communication services, where those records would reveal the identity of the customers using the service;
(5) Allows the Board of Probation and Parole to access information on the home computer of a registered sexual offender;
(6) Expands the scope of defendants to whom bail is unavailable to include defendants who have pled guilty to or been found guilty of any sexual offense under Chapters 566, 568, or 573, RSMo, where the victim was younger than 17 years of age when the crime was committed. Currently, bail is not available to defendants under a sentence of death or imprisonment for life;
(7) Adds child kidnapping to the list of dangerous felony offenses;
(8) Increases the term of imprisonment for a persistent sexual offender from not less than 30 years to the duration of his or her natural life;
(9) Specifies that consent is not an affirmative defense to any offense in Chapter 566 if the alleged victim is younger than 12 years of age;
(10) Increases the penalty from a minimum of five years' imprisonment to a minimum of 30 years for the crimes of forcible rape and forcible sodomy if the victim is younger than 12 years of age. No person found guilty of or pleading guilty to forcible rape, attempted forcible rape, forcible sodomy, or attempted forcible sodomy will be granted a suspended imposition of sentence or suspended execution of sentence;
(11) Creates the crimes of attempting to commit statutory rape and attempting to commit statutory sodomy;
(12) When a person commits child molestation in the first degree, the victim is younger than 12 years of age, and the person has previously been convicted of a sexual offense, inflicts a serious injury, or displays a deadly weapon, the defendant will be ineligible for probation or parole;
(13) Expands the crime of sexual contact with a student to include sexual contact with a student of a public school while on public school property by a student teacher, employee of the school, volunteer of the school or of an organization working with the school on a project or program, or a person employed by an entity that contracts with a public school district to provide services;
(14) Eliminates the act of having deviate sexual intercourse with a person of the same sex from the crime of sexual misconduct in the first degree;
(15) Expands the crime of sexual contact with a prisoner or offender to include a probation and parole officer who has sexual intercourse or deviate sexual intercourse with an offender who is under the direct supervision of the officer;
(16) Specifies that no sexual offender will be present or loiter within 500 feet of the real property of any school or in any conveyance owned, leased, or contracted by a school when persons younger than 18 years of age are present unless the offender is a parent, legal guardian, or custodian of the person and has obtained permission from the school administration;
(17) Increases the penalty for the crimes of enticement of a child and attempting to commit enticement of a child to a term of imprisonment of no less than five years and no more than 30 years;
(18) Creates the crime of sexual trafficking of a child younger than 12 years of age, a felony punishable by imprisonment for life without eligibility for probation or parole until the defendant has served at least 25 years of each sentence;
(19) Allows a court to order the dissolution, reorganization, suspension, or revocation of any license or charter surrender of any corporation who has been found guilty of or has pled guilty to certain sexual offenses;
(20) Creates the crime of promoting travel for prostitution, a class C felony;
(21) Prohibits travel agencies or charter tour operators from selling, advertising, or offering to sell travel services, tourism packages, or activities that solicit, encourage, or facilitate travel for the purpose of engaging in prosecution. Violation of this provision will result in the revocation of the articles of incorporation of the travel agency or charter tour operator;
(22) Creates the crime of aiding a sexual offender, a class D felony;
(23) Removes any person found guilty of or who pled guilty or nolo contendere to nonsexual child abuse or felonious restraint or kidnapping when the victim was a child and he or she was the parent or guardian of the child from the sexual offender registry;
(24) Allows any person found guilty of or who pled guilty or nolo contendere to promoting prostitution in the second or third degree, committing a public display of sexual material, or committing statutory rape in the second degree where no physical force or threat of physical force was used in the commission of the crime to petition the court for the removal of his or her name from the sexual offender registry after 10 years have passed from the date he or she was required to register;
(25) Allows any person found guilty of or who pled guilty or nolo contendere to a sexual offense and who was 19 years of age or younger and the victim was 13 years of age or older at the time of the offense and no physical force or threat of physical force was used in the commission of the crime to petition the court for the removal of his or her name from the sexual offender registry after two years have passed from when the offender was found guilty or pled guilty or nolo contendere;
(26) Requires a person seeking removal from the sexual offender registry to notify the prosecuting attorney in the circuit court in which the petition is filed. Failure to notify the prosecuting attorney will result in an automatic denial of the person's petition. If the petition is denied by the judge, the person must wait at least 12 months before petitioning the court again;
(27) Requires all sexual offender registrants to provide an updated photograph of himself or herself in the month of his or her birth to the chief law enforcement agency in the county of his or her residence;
(28) A person who commits the crime of failing to register or failing to comply with the registration requirements will be guilty of a class A misdemeanor. A second offense will be a class D felony, and a third offense will be punishable by a term of imprisonment of not less than 10 years and not more than 30 years;
(29) Allows the court to conditionally release a person civilly committed as a sexually violent predator if that person's mental abnormality has changed so that the person is not likely to commit acts of sexual violence if released;
(30) Establishes a panel which will create a program to award grants to multi-jurisdictional Internet cyber crime law enforcement task forces and other law enforcement agencies for the salaries of newly hired detectives and computer forensic personnel who investigate Internet sex crimes against children; and
(31) Requires the Department of Corrections to notify the State Highway Patrol of any offender who is required to be electronically monitored.
The bill contains an emergency clause. (Signed 6/5/06)
HB 1857 — Commencement of Prosecution. Specifies that a prosecution is commenced for a misdemeanor or infraction when the information is filed. A prosecution for a felony is commenced when the complaint is filed. (Signed 6/9/06)
HB 1858 — Power to Dismiss Charges. Authorizes the prosecuting or circuit attorney to dismiss a complaint, information, or indictment without the consent of the court. (Signed 6/9/06)
SCS SB 578 — Funeral Protests. Establishes the Spc. Edward Lee Myers’ Law which makes it a class B misdemeanor to picket or protest in front of or about any church, cemetery, or funeral establishment within one hour prior to the commencement of any funeral and until one hour following the cessation of any funeral. Any subsequent violation will be a class A misdemeanor.
The bill contains an emergency clause. (Signed 2/23/06 by Senate Pro Tem Gibbons)
SB 785 — Duties of Jailers. Authorizes jailers to serve arrest warrants on individuals who are already inmates in the custody of the facility in which the jailer is employed. (Signed 6/9/06)
SCS SB 870 — Transfer of Appropriation Payments. (See State Government Law)
HCS SB 1023 — DNA Profiling Analysis. Defines "central repository" and "forensic DNA analysis" and allows a person who is determined to be actually innocent of a crime to receive $50 for each day of post-conviction incarceration and an automatic expungement of any records concerning the crime for which the person was innocent.
The bill also extends the expiration date on criminal court surcharges from August 28, 2006, to August 28, 2013. (Signed 6/30/06)