ST. LOUIS, MO (May 30, 2024) — St. Louis Circuit Attorney Gabe Gore today reviewed the progress made during his first year on the job, rebuilding a distressed office on the verge of collapse, reestablishing the trust of the community and providing a higher level of public safety for all St. Louisans.

“Today, the Circuit Attorney’s office is once again performing its vital role in the criminal justice system,” Gore said at a press conference Thursday morning at the Carnahan Courthouse. “The professional relationship between the Circuit Attorney’s Office (CAO) and the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department has been repaired, and the state of our collaboration is stronger than ever before. I can say with complete confidence that the work we are doing is saving lives and delivering our city from a state of lawlessness.”

Gore credited “an exceptional team of seasoned prosecutors” who returned to the Circuit Attorney’s Office to help rebuild its reputation, including Chief Trial Attorney Marvin O. Teer Jr., Chief of Homicide Mary Pat Carl, Chief Warrant Officer Steve Capizzi, and Chief of the Conviction Integrity Unit and Chief of Training, former Missouri Supreme Court Judge George W. Draper III.

Gore has hired 33 attorneys, including 20 seasoned prosecutors with more than 130 years of collective prosecutorial experience. The office currently has a caseload more than double its historic size and remains understaffed. To function at its highest level, the CAO must continue to invest in recruiting, hiring, training and retaining quality employees, Gore said. Seven recent law school graduates are expected to join the office in the fall.

The backlog of pending cases in the Warrant Office has been reduced from 6,700 one year ago to 2,672 today, Gore said. The backlog included nine homicides and hundreds of violent felonies including rapes, assaults and carjackings. As these cases are reviewed and successfully prosecuted, more violent offenders are coming off the streets, Gore said, including a small number of felons who commit the majority of the City’s violent crimes. Gore inherited a backlog of 250 homicide cases. Although the office has cleared 70 homicides in the past year, there are currently 237 homicides including new cases pending. In addition, at the request of police, the office is taking a second look at 30 homicides that were never charged.

Since Gore was appointed by Gov. Mike Parson in May of 2023 following the abrupt resignation of former Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner, the office has not only charged significantly more cases, but is also filing charges in a timelier manner – usually the same day they are presented to the Warrant Office by police. These include thousands of “quality of life” crimes such as car thefts and burglaries, as well as high-profile prosecutions that have had a major impact on public safety in the city.

Reckless driving, a source of heightened public concern, is also being addressed, Gore said. In April, 22-year-old Daniel Riley was sentenced to nearly 19 years in prison for causing a car crash downtown last year that severed both legs of 17-year-old Janae Edmondson. Edmondson was a high school student from Tennessee who had come to St. Louis to compete in a volleyball tournament.

 “We have sent a simple message to those who are wreaking havoc in our city by choosing to ignore traffic laws: Reckless driving will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” Gore said.

From the beginning of his tenure, Gore has made building trust through community engagement a pillar of his administration. He has participated in dozens of public meetings with community and civic organizations, neighborhood groups, business networks, social justice organizations, colleges and elementary schools.

“One of the most important things we can do is listen to the concerns of the community,” Gore said. “It is our hope that by building strong community relationships based on trust, we can increase citizens’ involvement in the criminal justice system,” Gore said. “When members of the public – including crime victims – are willing to testify to what they have seen or experienced, it helps our office bring criminals to justice.”

As part of its community engagement efforts, earlier this month the CAO  launched a revamped website, www.circuitattorney.org. The new website provides greater transparency about the CAO’s operations, has improved the public’s ability to conduct business with the CAO, and provides easy access to resources and information for victims of crime, individuals seeking unpaid child support, restitution for bad checks, and Sunshine law information requests.

Significant resources have been invested in rebuilding the CAO’s Diversion Unit, which offers qualified non-violent offenders an alternative to entering the criminal justice system. Diversion programs across the country have been successful in helping individuals get their lives back on track, while preserving limited resources needed to prosecute serious crimes. The CAO’s Diversion team includes two attorneys, three social workers, and a broad network of community partners providing offenders with support and resources in education, job training, physical and mental health, and housing.

“While it is essential to hold criminals accountable for their actions, it is equally important to offer non-violent individuals a path to making better decisions,” Gore said. “Basic justice dictates that people deserve a second chance.”

Examining potential injustices is also a critical function of the CAO, Gore said. The Conviction Integrity Unit, established last fall under the leadership of Judge Draper, is reviewing dozens of cases to determine whether there is evidence of actual innocence that would warrant the CAO’s assistance in seeking to overturn guilty verdicts.

In February, Gore filed a motion with the 22^nd Judicial Circuit Court seeking to vacate the sentence of Christopher Dunn, who was convicted of murder at the age of 19 based on the eyewitness testimony of a 12-year-old and a 14-year-old boy, both of whom later recanted.

Dunn, 51, was sentenced to life without parole and has spent 33 years in prison. Judge Jason M. Sengheiser is expected to make a determination in Dunn’s case next month.

When the community has confidence that the Circuit Attorney’s office is functioning as it should to hold violent criminals accountable, offer second chances and opportunities to those who deserve them, and is willing to investigate its potential failures, it builds confidence in the criminal justice system as a whole, Gore said.

Conversations with residents throughout the city during his first year as Circuit Attorney have shown him that St. Louisans share the same goals, he said.

“We all want to live in a community where we feel secure, can go about our daily lives safely, and pursue our dreams without fear,” Gore said. “As long as I am Circuit Attorney, our office will continue to strive to make St. Louis a safer, more just community for everyone. “

Gore is running unopposed in the November election for a four-year term as Circuit Attorney beginning in January 2025.

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