Proposed legislation in the Missouri Senate could significantly alter criminal prosecution. Two senate bills have proposed doing away with the county prosecuting attorney system in favor of a state-run system that would have a prosecutor handling entire circuit. The move is intended as a cost-savings measure, but the Missouri Prosecuting Attorneys for Local Accountability and Control says it could stretch prosecutors too thin and compromise the courts efficiency. For example, the state prosecutor for the 26th Circuit (the lake area) would handle all the felony cases while assistants would handle misdemeanor cases. In Fiscal Year 2013, that would have been 1,399 felony cases for one prosecutor in one year.
Posted on: Sun, 25 Jan 2015 22:28:17 +0000