Understanding the Criminal Process

The state’s legislative branches establish the laws by which we all must live. These laws define both crimes and punishment. At the state level, the legislature is called the General Assembly, and the laws it enacts are known collectively as the Revised Statutes of Missouri. At the local level, laws may be adopted by the county commission or the local city council of a municipality; the laws they enact typically are known as ordinances.

The state’s executive branch helps enforce those laws. The executive branch includes law enforcement officials at the state and local levels, including the Missouri State Highway Patrol and Capitol Police, as well as county sheriff’s offices and municipalities’ police departments.

If a law enforcement officer arrests an individual for suspicion of violating a state or local law, then a local prosecutor determines whether to bring charges. If the prosecutor brings charges, then the accused is brought before a court to determine guilt, and, in the case of guilt, to determine the appropriate punishment. In Missouri, the trial courts are known as circuit courts.

If the violation is of a municipal ordinance, then the case goes before the local municipal court division. Infractions and misdemeanors are filed in the associate division of the local circuit court. Felony offenses are filed first in the associate division and, if probable cause is found to proceed, then they are refiled in the circuit division.

Some offenders with certain substance abuse disorders may be deemed appropriate for diversion into a treatment court instead of proceeding with their criminal cases. They receive not only treatment but also intense supervision in treatment court. If they are successful, they “graduate” from treatment court, but if they are not successful, they leave treatment court and go back into the criminal process.

Circuit judges can preside over trials of all types of crimes, from ordinance violations through the most serious felonies. An offender may have a “bench trial,” in which the judge decides all questions of both fact and law, or may opt for a jury trial, in which local citizens decide questions of fact – including whether the offender is guilty of a crime.

If an offender ultimately is found guilty, then the court will impose a sentence within the range of punishments authorized by the applicable law. This may include probation or imprisonment.

To learn more about how sentencing might work for any particular offense, please use Missouri’s new Time Served Calculator tool, available at https://www.courts.mo.gov/sentencing-calc/.