Kansas Supreme Court reverses itself in sentencing case affecting hundreds of inmates

A Kansas Supreme Court ruling issued last year could have opened the prison doors for hundreds of dangerous inmates.

But in an unusual reversal of that ruling, the court’s justices appear to have slammed the doors shut.

And the state’s prosecutors, who feared that the previous ruling could create a public safety crisis, are breathing a big sigh of relief.

“We were very happy to see what they did,” said Wyandotte County District Attorney Jerry Gorman.

The complicated and technical legal case has to do with how an offender’s prior convictions are calculated under state sentencing guidelines. That calculation affects a criminal’s sentence length for a new conviction.

A defendant who previously committed felony crimes against persons — such as murder, robbery, aggravated assault and most sex offenses — generally receives a longer sentence than someone with previous convictions for “nonperson” felonies like forgery and theft.

But before the state adopted the guidelines in 1993, it did not classify felonies as person or nonperson.

Another state law mandated that “unclassified felonies and misdemeanors” should be considered as nonperson crimes for sentencing purposes.

As a result, attorneys for a convicted armed robber successfully argued to the Supreme Court last year that his convictions for crimes prior to 1993 should not have been counted as person crimes.

Though the ruling pertained to prior convictions from other states, some in the legal community believed it could also affect prior in-state convictions.

The ruling brought a rush of appeals across the state from dozens of inmates seeking to have their sentences recalculated and reduced.

It also prompted the Kansas Legislature to amend the sentencing law so that felony convictions prior to 1993 will be classified as person or nonperson felonies based on comparable crimes in place at the time the new crime is committed.

Lawmakers also stated that the new amendments should be applied retroactively.

The changed law went into effect in April.

Then in late August, the Kansas Supreme Court issued a new opinion that reversed its 2014 ruling.

Looking at the totality of the original sentencing guidelines law, the court found that the Legislature intended for all prior convictions to be considered for sentencing purposes and that those must be classified as person or nonperson. Determining the distinction between the two should be based on the comparable Kansas offense in place at the time the current crime was committed.

Because of its new ruling, the court said it was not necessary for it to consider the constitutionality of the 2015 amendments made by the Legislature.

“It will significantly reduce the number of potential appeals by inmates asking for reduced sentences,” said Johnson County District Attorney Steve Howe.

Both Howe and Gorman from Wyandotte County said it was rare for the court to reverse one of its own decisions after such a short period of time.

Gorman said that typically such reversals come after a longer period of time when the makeup of the court has changed significantly.

But in this case, the makeup of the court was virtually the same. Only one position had changed, and that new justice voted the same way on the issue as the justice he replaced.

“It was a very unique situation,” Howe said.

This story was originally published September 20, 2015 at 6:03 PM with the headline "Kansas Supreme Court reverses itself in sentencing case affecting hundreds of inmates."