Joplin lawmaker’s bill would appoint special prosecutor in high crime areas
(Missourinet) A public safety bill sponsored by Joplin Republican Representative Lane Roberts is making the rounds in the Missouri Senate after previously passing the House of Representatives.
His bill focuses on appointing special prosecutors in high crime areas. The bill would allow the Governor to appoint a special prosecutor for a period of up to five years where the homicide rate in a prosecuting attorney’s jurisdiction exceeds 35 cases for every 100,000 people.
Roberts says everyone is making this about St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner. “Not just willing to make it about the circuit attorney as an individual. I think there’s almost been a deliberate effort to make it that and it’s not, regardless of who the circuit attorney was, gender, race, any other,” said Roberts. “Quality aside, the real question is the people who are committing violent crime in St. Louis are not being prosecuted and held accountable.”
Roberts says it is all about correcting the issue, no matter who is at the helm. “…if that person is not performing and if we’re not holding criminals accountable, it creates that sort of environment where people who are law abiding are literally feeling insecure in their own homes. It’s affecting the entire state and that’s really how I got involved.”
The bill would also impose mandatory minimum sentences for classes of felonies for offenders with prior felony convictions, with exceptions for drug and alcohol offenses.
Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, who has called Gardner’s competence into question, is trying to get Gardner removed from office by way of the court system.
The high crime rate in St. Louis is no secret, Roberts tells Missourinet that Missouri’s crime data is disproportionately driven by St. Louis. “That affects our reputation nationally, internationally, economically, academically. People are reluctant to bring their businesses here to send their children to our learning institutions,” states Roberts. “It’s difficult, and in this is truly, even on the international level, people recognize Missouri as a violent place and in particular, St. Louis.”
The Senate could take up a vote on it soon.