A Missouri Senate panel is beginning work on an effort to overhaul the state's criminal code.

The legislation is the work of a Missouri Bar panel that began meeting five years ago to give the code its first makeover since the 1970s.  

The measure would create new classes of felonies and misdemeanors and give judges more flexibility in sentencing.

The Senate's judiciary committee held a hearing Monday on the 1,000-page bill sponsored by Democratic Senate Minority Leader Jolie Justus of Kansas City. The committee did not vote on the bill and planned another hearing Tuesday.

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