Politics

An overview of statewide ballot issues, November 2014

2014 will see nine proposed constitutional amendments sent to the voters. In August, voters approved three amendments to the state constitution, while turning down two. Most notably, Missourians passed the controversial "Right to Farm" amendment, and rejected a ten year increase in sales tax to fund transportation projects. This Tuesday voters will decide upon amendments 2, 3, 6 and 10. Amendment 2: This amendment would allow a defendant's "evidence of prior criminal acts" to be admissible in court if the case involved "crimes of a sexual nature" against a victim under the age of eighteen. Read more here Amendment 3: If approved this amendment would dramatically alter how public school teachers are paid, evaluated, and promoted. It would tie pay to student performance evaluations, and restrict contracts to a maximum of three years, among other changes. Read more here Amendment 6: This amendment would create Missouri's first early voting procedure. If approved, Missouri would establish a six-day early voting window for mail-in and in-person ballots. Voters would not be able to cast ballots on weekends, and outside of the hours poling facilities normally operate. Read more here Amendment 10: If passed, this would place greater fiscal restrictions on the governor. In particular, it would disallow the withholding of revenue based on a projected shortfall, and require public debts be paid. Read more here

Voter Guide To Missouri Amendment 2 On Sex Crimes

KCUR | By Cody Newill

Published October 24, 2014 at 10:00 AM CDT

Missouri Constitutional Amendment 2 would make it easier for prosecutors to bring evidence of sexual crimes against minors to court.

A constitutional amendment on the Nov. 4 ballot could change the way sexual crimes are prosecuted in Missouri.

Constitutional Amendment 2 would allow previous relevant criminal activities to be admissible in court for crimes of a sexual nature against a minor.

Ballot language:

Shall the Missouri Constitution be amended so that it will be permissible to allow relevant evidence of prior criminal acts to be admissible in prosecutions for crimes of a sexual nature involving a victim under eighteen years of age? If more resources are needed to defend increased prosecutions additional costs to governmental entities could be at least $1.4 million annually, otherwise the fiscal impact is expected to be limited.

What it means:

If passed, a suspected sexual offender's past criminal activity would be admissible in court as evidence of wrongdoing. Even if the offender had not been charged or sentenced, accusations of sexual crimes involving children still would be admissible. Currently, previous sexual criminal acts are only admissible during the sentencing phase of a trial.

Pros:

The Kansas City Star's editorial board suggests that voters vote "yes" on Amendment 2. The Star is hesitant about mere accusations being admissible in court, but says sex crimes committed against children are heinous enough to warrant the amendment.

"States have different standards for child sexual abuse prosecutions for good reasons: The crimes are nearly always committed in secret, and young victims often don’t report abuse until long after physical evidence has disappeared," the Star wrote. "Also, past victims who have been afraid to speak up often come forward once a prosecution gets underway. "

Cons:

Opponents of Amendment 2 include the Missouri ACLU chapter and the Missouri Association of Criminal Defense. Jeffrey Mittman of the ACLU released a statement claiming that Amendment 2 presumes suspects are guilty instead of innocent.

"The Missouri Supreme Court has repeatedly reminded us: in America we are tried only on the crime charged," Mittman wrote. "Missourians should avoid the temptation to allow evidence of uncharged crimes to be presented at trial, simply to demonstrate a propensity or tendency to commit a crime."