HB 1413 -- Death Penalty Cases

Sponsor:  McGhee

This bill limits the amount of aid the Attorney General may give
prosecuting or circuit attorneys in death penalty cases by
specifying that the Attorney General or one of his or her
assistants may provide aid only if the Attorney General:

(1)  Establishes the Death Increment Fiscal Accountability
Committee to review all cases in which the Attorney General is
requested to provide assistance in seeking the death penalty;

(2)  Creates the Death Increment Trust Account to be the sole
source of funding for trial costs attributed to the Attorney
General's Office for death penalty cases;

(3)  Prepares a budget for the prosecution of any case in which
he or she is requested to seek the death penalty and submits the
budget to the committee; and

(4)  Makes a recommendation whether to seek the death penalty in
a given case based on the strength of the evidence of the
underlying offense, the strength of the statutory aggravating
factors in the case, the relative importance of those factors in
separating the case from homicide cases generally, the
information in mitigation available to the committee, the
personnel and budgetary needs of the Office of the Attorney
General and the State Public Defender System, and the ability of
the state to pay the additional costs associated with seeking the
death penalty as opposed to a sentence other than death.

If the committee recommends that the Attorney General, or his or
her assistant, assist in seeking the death penalty, the City of
St. Louis or the county where the case arises must pay into the
account the budgeted cost of prosecuting the case as a death
penalty case in the court but will be entitled to a refund of any
unexpended funds it paid into the trust account for the case.

Missouri House of Representatives
95th General Assembly, 2nd Regular Session
Last Updated September 14, 2010 at 3:10 pm