SECOND REGULAR SESSION

HOUSE COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR

HOUSE BILL NO. 1331

88TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

Reported from the Committee on Civil & Criminal Law, April 10, 1996, with recommendation that the House Committee Substitute for House Bill No. 1331 Do Pass.

DOUGLAS W. BURNETT, Chief Clerk

L3224.02C

AN ACT

To repeal section 565.020, RSMo 1994, relating to murder, and to enact in lieu thereof one new section relating to the same subject.

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the state of Missouri, as follows:

Section A. Section 565.020, RSMo 1994, is repealed and one new section enacted in lieu thereof, to be known as section 565.020, to read as follows:

565.020. 1. A person commits the crime of murder in the first degree if [he] such person knowingly causes the death of another person after deliberation upon the matter.

2. Murder in the first degree is a class A felony, and the punishment shall be either death or imprisonment for life without eligibility for probation or parole, or release except by act of the governor; except that, if a person has not reached [his] such person's sixteenth birthday at the time of the commission of the crime or is mentally retarded as defined in section 630.005, RSMo, the punishment shall be imprisonment for life without eligibility for probation or parole, or release except by act of the governor.

3. Evidence of mental retardation shall be heard and determined by the trial court out of hearing of the jury prior to submission of the case to the jury, for the purpose of determining whether the death penalty may be imposed upon the defendant. Any evidence submitted during this pretrial phase may be submitted at trial in the presence of the jury if such evidence is relevant to any other issue.