A Butler County assistant prosecutor says attorneys and court officials have encountered a "few hiccups" as they work the bugs out in the state's new criminal code.
The changes, which are the first comprehensive overhaul of Missouri's criminal laws since 1979, went into effect Jan. 1.
"There's been a few hiccups, but nothing major; it's like anything you try new, there's going to be a few bugs in it that you've got to work out, as well as an education process for not only our office, the prosecutor's office, but for law enforcement as well," said Paul Oesterreicher.
Although passed in 2014, "they gave everyone three years to get ready for it" since it was a major overhaul, Oesterreicher said.
1979, according to Oesterreicher, was the first time "they actually clarified the law, then, of course, each year, the legislative body goes in and tinkers with it; they change this; they change that," adding different chapters.
As a result, Oesterreicher said, there were criminal laws that were "sort of all over the books."
Oesterreicher believes the code "definitely needed" updating "because we have changed many of the things that we do from 40 years ago."
The process started about 10 years ago, he said, when it was decided officials would "start working on putting (the laws) back into some resemblance of cohesion."
A committee was set up, which was made up of judges, prosecutors, including then Dunklin County Prosecuting Attorney Steve Sokoloff, defense attorneys and private citizens, Oesterreicher said.
"They looked at the code and said we need to move this here, and we need to move this there," he said.
Based on conversations with Sokoloff, Oesterreicher said, the "codification (the process of arranging laws) is not the only change to the code," which put it "into some logical order."
As to the codification, "there is really nothing changed in how we operate because the laws are still the laws; however, there were some compromises that came out of committee, which then became law, which changed (the law's) meaning," Oesterreicher said.
There also was a review of certain offenses, he said.
According to what Sokoloff reported there was "give and take as to what laws should be changed," Oesterreicher said. "In other words, sometimes the defense counsel wanted something; sometimes the prosecutors would want something, and they would compromise."
One of those compromises, he said, deals with the manslaughter charges stemming from driving-while-intoxicated crashes in which someone is killed.
"It used to be that if you ended up killing a person in your vehicle, it was a Class C felony, and if you hit somebody (in another vehicle) and they died, it was a Class B felony," Oesterreicher explained.
The legislators now have classified the charge as the new Class C felony, punishable by three to 10 years in prison, said Oesterreicher, who indicated it no longer matters which vehicle the deceased is riding in.
"If I remember Steve Sokoloff talking in one of our conferences, that was a compromise because they felt that each human life was just as equal," Oesterreicher explained. "By making the distinction of (whether) they were in the (driver's) car or not was kind of making one person superior to another.
"Every human life should have the same valuation."
The new code, Oesterreicher said, also changes the classifications of assault charges, as well as adds a fourth-degree assault.
The assault statute and several other statutes, he said, were combined.
"Instead of having an assault on a law enforcement officer and assault on a regular individual, they're all in one area" now, Oesterreicher said. "What they ended up doing is, you no longer have it classified as assault of a law enforcement officer.
"They call it assault to a special victim, and that special victim could be a fireman, police officer, a prosecutor, any of those individuals."
Changes also were made to drug offenses, Oesterreicher said.
While someone still can be charged as a prior and persistent offender, "they did take away the right of the state to ask for no parole," Oesterreicher said. "Then, they didn't necessarily decriminalize marijuana, but they lessened the criminal effect for first-time offenders."
Possession of fewer than 10 grams of marijuana is now a Class D misdemeanor and subject to a fine only for the first offense, he said.
Butler County's prosecutors, he said, have filed a number of those cases already this year.
"One of the other things that came out of the drug area is if you have a gun and you have drugs, that are considered a felony amount of drugs, there is a separate crime," Oesterreicher explained. "In other words, we can charge them with possession of the drugs, and we can charge them with possession of the gun with the drugs.
"It used to be the only way you could charge them with a felony involving the gun is they had to be a convicted felon."
Having the ability to file the charges separately will be helpful as "in the last several years we have (more) incidents involving individuals in our community who are attacking other individuals for their guns or drugs or money," Oesterreicher said.
The new code also changed the felony classifications, creating a E felony, which replaces the former D felony and is punishable by one to four years in prison, Oesterreicher said.
The former C felony classification is now a D felony, punishable by one to seven years in prison, said Oesterreicher, who indicated the first defendants pleaded guilty to the new Class D felony of possession of a controlled substance in April.
The code, he said, also created a new Class C felony, punishable by three to 10 years in prison.
A and B felonies, Oesterreicher said, remained unchanged.