If the director of the department of mental health determines that the person's mental abnormality has so changed that the person is not likely to commit acts of sexual violence if released, the director shall authorize the person to petition the court for release. The petition shall be served upon the court that committed the person, the prosecutor of the jurisdiction into which the committed person is to be released, the director of the department of mental health, the head of the facility housing the person, and the attorney general. The hearing and trial, if any, shall be conducted according to the provisions of section 632.498.
Mo. Rev. Stat. § 632.501
Petition for release — hearing (when director approves)
Applied in 3 court decisions — leading case 160 Wash. 2d 543 - In re the Detention of Ambers (2007)
Most recently applied in Van Orden v. Stringer (July 2017)
Effective: 28 Aug 2012, 2 histories; (L. 1998 H.B. 1405, et al. § 8, A.L. 2006 H.B. 1698, et al., A.L. 2012 H.B. 1318)
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Official source: Missouri Revisor of Statutes. Reproduced from public-domain Missouri statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.