Abolishes the death penalty and specifies that any person sentenced to death must be sentenced to life imprisonment without parole

This bill abolishes the death penalty in Missouri and mandates that anyone convicted of first-degree murder be sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, except by an act of the governor. It achieves this by repealing existing statutes that authorized capital punishment and replacing them with new sections that specify life without parole as the mandatory penalty for adults aged eighteen and older. The legislation also clarifies how offenses are classified based on potential prison terms and outlines rules for combining homicide charges with other crimes during legal proceedings. These changes directly affect the sentencing outcomes for individuals convicted of murder and alter the legal framework governing capital cases in the state.