The Missouri Senate passed a “dangerous” provision “in the midnight hours” of September 2 that would hand over an unprecedented amount of authority of St. Louis’ Democratic elected prosecutor to Missouri’s Republican Attorney General Eric Schmitt, according to Missouri prosecutors and the NAACP.
“In the entire history of Missouri’s statehood, the attorney general has never had the power to prosecute homicide cases without the request and consent of the local prosecutor,” according to a September 3 statement from the Missouri Association of Prosecuting Attorneys. “Missourians believe in local control and have never wanted statewide politicians to meddle in local affairs.”
The provision came through an amendment to House Bill 2, proposed by state Senator Bob Onder (R-Lake St. Louis), at around noon on September 2. It would allow the state attorney general to take over homicide cases in St. Louis after 90 days if Circuit Attorney Kimberly Gardner hasn’t filed charges or upon request from the “chief law enforcement officer.” It passed at about 3 a.m. on September 3, after a long debate and multiple failed amendments proposed by state Senator Jamilah Nasheed (D-St. Louis), the Missouri Times reported.
It’s the same provision that ultimately led to the death of Gov. Mike Parson’s crime bill (Senate Bill 1), after Parson added his proposal to unleash Schmitt on homicide cases in St. Louis on Aug. 10 — without the support of the city’s mayor, police chief or public safety director. Gardner, a reform prosecutor, is the first African-American to head St. Louis’ Circuit Attorney’s Office and won the August 4 Democratic primary with more than 60% of the vote.
The prosecuting attorneys association is again aggressively fighting it. Public Safety Director Jimmie Edwards said he continues to “voice strong objection” to the pursuit of concurrent jurisdiction between the Circuit Attorney’s Office and the Attorney General’s Office.
“It is unprecedented in Missouri,” said Edwards, a former circuit judge in St. Louis. “Elected local prosecutors are vested with unfettered discretion within their communities, and it should not be usurped under the circumstances presented.”
On August 12, Mayor Lyda Krewson publicly said, “Every county in Missouri has an independently elected prosecuting attorney, and we should let the people’s vote stand.”
The provision gives St. Louis’ police chief authority to ask Schmitt to prosecute officer-involved shooting cases, said St. Louis City NAACP President Adolphus Pruitt. The amendment states that the attorney general could prosecute cases with a written request, “made by the chief law enforcement officer of the investigative agency for the alleged criminal offense or offenses.”
“They are giving the police chief or the public safety director the authority to say to the attorney general, ‘The local prosecutor isn’t doing what we want and therefore we want you to come on over,’” Pruitt said. “That is across the board on murder cases. If there is an officer-involved shooting, then they can ask the attorney general to take over the case. He has the authority to prosecute or dismiss. It is crazy.”
Even more, Republican senators were so “desperate” to get the concurrent jurisdiction pushed through — despite city leaders’ overwhelming opposition — that they used the “nuclear option,” Pruitt said. They used a PQ, “moving the previous question,” which is a procedural move to shut off debate on a bill.
“What that does is, they risk any other piece of legislation that may come up during the special session not happening,” Pruitt said. “It throws off the whole thing. It’s rare that the Senate will use that procedure because it’s so explosive. You’re saying, ‘To hell with it.’”
All that – and possibly for nothing. The provision was sent back to the state House for approval, yet the House has taken no action on it.
