The most recent attempt to give the Missouri Attorney General’s Office concurrent jurisdiction to prosecute cases without local consent again has met with opposition from the state’s elected prosecutors.
Gov. Mike Parson proposed giving the AG’s Office the power to prosecute St. Louis homicides during a special session of the Missouri General Assembly.
The Missouri Association of Prosecuting Attorneys recently came out with a statement against such a move, something that is supported by the state’s 115 elected prosecutors, including Kacey Proctor of Butler County and Russ Oliver of Stoddard County.
“There has been repeated efforts over the years to try to give the attorney general concurrent jurisdiction across the state … and prosecutors across the state categorically oppose giving into any and all attempts to give the Attorney General’s Office concurrent jurisdiction,” Proctor said.
A recent incident involving a St. Louis couple standing outside their home with guns, protecting their personal property, seems to have “reignited” the talk of concurrent jurisdiction, Proctor said.
“Looking at it through the lens of the McCloskeys in St. Louis, it seems like a good idea, but if the shoe were on the other foot, and we had an attorney general who was a liberal and has an anti-gun agenda, (he) may have the power to prosecute the McCloskeys or someone like them, say here in Butler County,” Proctor explained.
That attorney general, he said, then could “take authority away from the local prosecutor and use that case to further its anti-gun agenda.”
If given what Proctor described as “full-blown, concurrent jurisdiction” like some in Jefferson City propose, then the AG’s Office would have the “authority to essentially take over a local prosecutor’s case load if they so desired, and the duly-elected official that the local people put into office would be powerless.”
Local control
Oliver, who co-chairs the MAPA legislative committee, agrees there is a problem in St. Louis, but “do we (change) an entire criminal justice system that’s been working well for the citizens of Missouri for 145 years.”
Oliver said he is a “big proponent” that positions, such as prosecutor, which “wield so much power over individuals’ lives, should be as locally controlled as possible.
“If I’m not doing my job or if I’m doing something that is improper, then the people in Bloomfield, Dexter and Puxico should have the power to replace me, and that power should not be held in distant Jefferson City.”
Prosecutors, sheriffs and judges have a “great deal of influence on citizens’ everyday life, and that’s why it is so important that local citizens’ ability to pick who is going to pursue justice on their behalf should not be undermined in any way,” Oliver said.
It’s possible, Proctor said, that the next elected attorney general could be “more liberal than what we in Southeast Missouri would feel comfortable with.
“If that were the case, that attorney general might try to make an example out of someone who’s using guns to try to protect their homes.”
Oliver agreed.
“The real danger is sometimes the rabbit gets the gun; what’s going to happen when the McCloskeys’ case comes up, and we have a Democrat attorney general, and they decide to politicize that the other direction,” Oliver said.
Oliver believes the current attorney general is “coming from a well-meaning place. I think he sees the real problems they are having in St. Louis city, and I think he genuinely wants to try to fix those problems, but I think this is badly misplaced policy in trying to accomplish that.
“At the end of the day, the voters in St. Louis city pick their own prosecutor. They picked her and re-elected Kim Gardner in a landslide.”
Legislative side
State Rep. Hardy Billington said he feels bad for the people in St. Louis and would like to address the issues, but “we’ve got to be careful. … We’ve got a great attorney right now.
“He is doing a great job and could handle this quite well, but … in the future, we may not have a great attorney general.”
As of Friday afternoon, the issue of concurrent jurisdiction remained in the State Senate.
“What we normally do is let the senate take the bill first,” Billington said. “The senate has not brought it up that I can see, but that doesn’t mean they won’t.”
The other special-session issues in the Senate include some “very, very good bills” sponsored by Sen. Doug Libla, Oliver said.
“Sen. Libla put together a very, very solid package of bills that seek to address real-world problems that we face right now,” Oliver explained.
Those bills, he said, deal with “forfeiture by wrongdoing,” which would allow hearsay statements to be used when witnesses are “unavailable due to the wrongdoing of the defendant.
“It also expands the unlawful use of a weapon crime,” making it a “crime to give a gun to a child for the purpose of committing a crime.”
Lately, Oliver said, there has been an uptick in the “worst criminals using children to commit their crimes and manipulating those children into gang activity. That’s a very important piece of legislation.”
Also being considered is a witness protection fund, Oliver said.
“That would help prosecutors protect witnesses from defendants who pose or threaten harm to them,” Oliver explained. “Everybody knows the federal witness protection program, but Missouri really doesn’t have a functioning program like that, and that is what this bill would create.”
Of the eight bills sponsored by Libla, Oliver said, the concurrent jurisdiction has gotten all the attention, and it’s not one filed by Libla.
“To say (concurrent jurisdiction) is not going to happen” before the end of the special session, is not known, Oliver said.
Any one of the 163 representatives, he said, could “stand up and offer a full amendment to add concurrent jurisdiction” to any of Libla’s eight bills as it is germane.
“The good things that (Libla) has proposed we really need passed in the form proposed by Sen. Libla,” Oliver said.