After eight years of discussions, debates and disagreements, the Missouri Legislature on Thursday sent a bill cracking down on crimes against children and drunken driving to Gov. Jay Nixon's desk, reports the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The measure would revamp the criminal code for the first time in decades. The state House and Senate reached a compromise on two separate proposals and passed the bill on to Nixon, although his signature is not assured.
The legislation would streamline existing criminal statutes, create new classes of felonies and misdemeanors and boost sentences for drunken drivers who kill someone. The bill also has been touted as tough on crimes against children by increasing the number of felony child molestation charges and adding incest as an aggravating factor in child sex abuse cases.