Incarcerated people who maintain that they shouldn't be in prison may soon be able to get a second look.
Bills in both the Missouri House and Senate would create a statewide Conviction Review Unit to examine any crime and make sure the system got it right. Kansas City and St. Louis both have similar programs in place already.
Senator Brian Williams of University City is the sponsor of Senate Bill 37, which is attached to Senate Bill 189, a bill that modifies provisions regarding criminal laws like expunging records. He told KMOX that the conviction review program in St. Louis is responsible for some recent exonerations.
"Kevin Strickland in Kansas City; just recently released Lamar Johnson — had those cities not had a conviction integrity unit, they might not have been freed," he said.
Williams said he doesn't know exactly how much the program will cost the state yet, but says that it won't be something that's used very often.
"It requires such a high burden of proof for someone to be exonerated, so for us, we don't anticipate it being a large number," he said.
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