criminal justice

The Kansas Commission on Judicial Conduct filed a 17-page formal complaint against Wyandotte County District Judge Tony Martinez, who is up for retention in the upcoming election. It alleged Martinez’s behavior appeared to breach two Kansas judicial canons while he served as a district judge. Martinez denies all allegations.

Over half of death row prisoners in Missouri have been executed. Nationally, the rate is 18%.

The work of the Midwest Innocence Project has resulted in 18 people freed or exonerated from prison, including several in Missouri and Kansas. But the nonprofit that provides pro bono legal work is in jeopardy due to a loss in federal grants and other financial strains.

Over the last three years, Kansas City Police Department statistics show a decrease in both homicides and nonfatal shootings. Police and community partners attribute the drop to a combination of preventive tactics.

For the past 25 years, the Midwest Innocence Project has worked at no cost to free incarcerated individuals who believe they were wrongfully convicted of crimes in Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska and Iowa.

Jackson County is voting for its new county executive this year. All the candidates put property taxes as their top priority. But go beyond that, and the differences creep in.

For more than 35 years, Cliff Middleton has been fighting to free his father from a Missouri prison for a crime they say he didn’t commit. In 1991, Ken Middleton was convicted of murdering his wife in their Blue Springs home, but the Georgetown University Law Center program “Making an Exoneree” reinvestigated and noted glaring discrepancies with his case.

More than 900 people who believe they were wrongfully convicted are on a waitlist for the Midwest Innocence Project, which provides pro bono legal representation in Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, Nebraska and Arkansas. The organization is celebrating 25 years of service in 2026.

While a pregnant woman can file for divorce in Missouri, under current law a judge can prevent it from being finalized. Gov. Mike Kehoe signed legislation removing those barriers, as well as a wide-reaching criminal justice bill.

Missouri already has an expungement system that allows people convicted of certain nonviolent misdemeanors and felonies to petition the court to seal their records. The "Clean Slate Act" would make that process automatic, potentially helping thousands of Missourians find housing and a job.

The legislation makes it easier for juveniles to be tried as adults and sets strict requirements for how long inmates must be imprisoned before they're eligible for parole.

Missouri is one of two states where, if a jury is deadlocked on whether to sentence someone to death, the judge can issue the death penalty. The bill also establishes an automatic record-clearing process for most nonviolent offenses.