In the 50th annual state of the judiciary speech, the Missouri Supreme Court chief justice urged lawmakers to fund a statewide pre-trial services program and to improve juvenile detention facilities, which she said were needed in trial courts throughout the state.

A raft of cases before the Missouri Supreme Court could determine just how early in a criminal case a defendant is entitled to a lawyer.

Despite four prior convictions for being intoxicated while controlling vehicles, a Missouri man was wrongly sentenced as a chronic offender following a new driving-while-intoxicated conviction, a divided Missouri Supreme Court decided.