The murder of a young North Dakota girl inspires background check legislation.

The bill would require criminal history checks for certain state and local government employees including corrections officers, security personnel and other positions of public trust.

They would also includ fingerprinting.

This would catch criminals who've changed their names to avoid detection.

The bill was inspired by the case of murder suspect Moe Maurice Gibbs.

Gibbs is a former Barnes County jailer.

He's accused of sexually abusing inmates.

He's also charged with murdering 22 year old Mindy Morgenstern.

(Sen. Larry Robinson / (D) Valley City) following her tragic death I made a commitment to do everything I could to make sure that a dangerous felon could slip through the cracks. we shall never forget Mindy Morgenstern, her family and her tragic death. This bill will serve to be a valuable tool for law enforcement and the entire state of ND

(Rep. Kim Koppelman / (R) West Fargo) sometimes it takes sadly a tragedy like this to bring to fact we have a deficency in our statute. Or the world is changed to the point that we in ND have to be thinking differently or in different ways than we did 10-20 yrs ago."


Besides corrections officers background checks would also be required for college students in particular higher education programs, dentists, nurses, realtors, pharmacists, school staff. watch the video | save this article / add to your favorites list