SPONSOR: Dolan
COMMITTEE ACTION: Voted "Do Pass with HCS" by the Standing Committee on Judiciary by a vote of 6 to 2 and 2 voting Present.
The following is a summary of the House Committee Substitute for HB 2699.
This bill prohibits a person convicted of the offense of tampering with a "court-related officer", as defined in the bill, for either threatening or causing harm to a court-related officer or a member of the officer's family or for using force, threats, or deception against or toward the officer or members of the officer's family from being eligible for parole.
The bill prohibits a person convicted of the offense of tampering with a judicial proceeding from being eligible for parole.
The following is a summary of the public testimony from the committee hearing. The testimony was based on the introduced version of the bill.
PROPONENTS: Supporters say that the effect of this bill is to remove the ability for a person convicted of these offenses to receive probation, parole, or conditional release. It used to be that you would be eligible for this but some of these offenses are egregious and should come with prison time. The intent was to synchronize these two sections because this existed for one of the tampering offenses but not the other and they wanted it to be the same. Those who serve in the courthouse are interested in fulfilling their duties without fear.
Testifying in person for the bill were Representative Dolan; Missouri Circuit Judges' Association; and Eric D. Jennings, Judicial Conference of Missouri.
OPPONENTS: Those who oppose the bill say that this is too egregious of a penalty because they believed people convicted of the offense would be required to spend their entire lives in prison. They felt this bill would create a dictatorship because a judge could just throw an offender in prison forever.
Testifying in person against the bill was Arnie C. Dienoff. Written testimony has been submitted for this bill. The full written testimony and witnesses testifying online can be found under Testimony on the bill page on the House website.
Statutes affected: