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HB 500
(sponsor Representative Jenee' Lowe) and HB 547 (sponsor Denny
Meredith) are two bills that were introduced in February at the
request of the Missouri Commission for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing.
Those bills would eliminate the current Missouri statutory bar to
serving on petit and grand juries if a person could not "speak"
English, thus allowing many persons who were born deaf but never
learned how to speak to serve on Missouri petit and grand juries.
Those bills were rolled together and had a public hearing before the
House Judiciary Committee on March 19. That committee voted out a
House Committee Substitute bill with effectively the same language
with a "Do Pass" recommendation on April 3. That substitute bill was
never reported out by the committee chair, and that bill is clearly
dead for this year's legislative session.
However, that substitute language was added to SB
469 (sponsor Senator Matt Bartle). SB 469 has passed the Senate and
is now on the House calendar for Senate Bills on third reading, and
looks like it may pass before the end of the week. We will keep you
informed. |
