Why a death penalty bill may be doomed

By Jason Hancock | Editor-in-Chief

Good morning,

One of the clearest signs of how power works in Jefferson City is when a bill can pile up bipartisan support and still run straight into leadership.

That is the shape of Steph Quinn’s lead story today: a proposal pairing automatic expungement with a requirement for unanimous juries in death penalty cases has momentum, but maybe not a path.

We also have Tyler Kirwan of the Columbia Missourian on the unusual position facing U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, who is running for reelection without knowing what district he may ultimately be running in. And for a change of pace, Max McCoy writes from Hutchinson about Apollo 13, Artemis II and the uneasy optimism that can still come from looking toward space.

by Steph Quinn

The package has drawn bipartisan support and ties a death penalty change to automatic expungement for hundreds of thousands of Missourians, but one Senate leader is making clear where the real obstacle sits.

by Tyler Kirwan

Cleaver has filed for another race, but Missouri’s redistricting fight has left a basic question unresolved: which voters he may need to persuade, and whether his longtime political base will even remain intact.

by Max McCoy

A visit to the Cosmosphere becomes something more than a museum trip, as McCoy uses Apollo 13 and Artemis II to think through risk, memory and a form of American optimism that can still feel surprisingly fragile.

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