Governor to sign bills at new crime-lab site

July 08, 2009 09:45 pm

— By Susan Redden
sredden@joplinglobe.com
CARTHAGE, Mo. — An architect’s drawing of a new state crime lab planned for a location south of Carthage will be on display today when Gov. Jay Nixon makes a stop at the site today.
The Carthage Highway Patrol satellite office south of Carthage will be the setting for a 1:45 p.m. event when the governor will sign ceremonial copies of five bills, all passed in this past legislative session, relating to crime and punishment.
While at the Carthage site, Nixon will also view drawings of a new state crime lab being planned for construction next to the satellite office. The lab currently is located at Missouri Southern State University. The state earlier announced plans to locate the lab in a part of the former McCune-Brooks Hospital building in Carthage, before a decision was made to construct a new lab on state-owned property south of town.
According to Mike O’Connell, director of communications for the Missouri Department of Public Safety, the new building is to have 6,000 square feet and cost about $1 million. Plans call for construction bids to be sought in late summer, and for the building to be complete and ready for occupancy by late next year.
Bills to be signed by the governor today include an omnibus crime bill that, among a variety of provisions, establishes a Crime Laboratory Review commission to provide an independent review of any state or local crime laboratory receiving state funds.
Other measures expand the state’s DNA profiling system, require life imprisonment for the forcible rape or sodomy of a child, revise laws on children who must testify in court, and revise laws on search warrants served in DWI investigations.

Local sponsors
State Rep. Marilyn Ruestman, R-Joplin, is sponsor of the DNA profiling legislation, and state Sen. Jack Goodman, R-Mount Vernon, sponsored the bill increasing penalties for child rape.