Category: Trials
Updated on January 26, 2021
Supplementing the Pattern Premeditation Jury Instruction: Necessary or Unnecessarily Confusing?
Author: Dahnika Short, Staff Editor State v. Stafford, No. 120,481 (Kan. Dec. 23, 2020) Issue: Was the addition of a Bernhardt instruction to the premeditation Pattern Instruction for Kansas (PIK) confusing and therefore legally inappropriate? Answer: No. There …
Updated on January 14, 2021
The Language Conduit Rule: Admitting Interpreters’ Hearsay Statements in Kansas
Author: Cayce Good, Staff Editor State v. Gutierrez-Fuentes, No. 120,339, (Kan. Ct. App., Nov. 25, 2020) Issue: Under Kan. Stat. Ann. § 60-460, statements made by a person other than a witness testifying in court are considered inadmissible …
Updated on July 25, 2020
Manifest Necessity Required to Declare Jury Deadlocked
Author: Emily Otte, Executive Comments Editor State v. Kornelson, No. 118,091 (Kan. July 2, 2020) Issue: Whether the goading standard or the manifest necessity standard applies to a double jeopardy claim when the defendant does not object or …
Updated on July 20, 2020
Kansas District Courts’ Authority to Interpret Ambiguous Jury Verdicts
Author: Ellen Bertels, Comments Editor State v. Brown, No. 115,817 (Kan. June 5, 2020). Issue: Can a district court invoke the surplusage rule and discard part(s) of a jury verdict form when the form incorrectly lists the crimes …
Updated on June 2, 2020
Understanding Jury Trial Waivers
State v. Harris, No. 117,362 (Kan., Apr. 17, 2020). Issue: Is telling both your attorney, who has informed you of your rights, and the district court, which asks for a choice between a “bench trial and the case …
Updated on June 2, 2020
Probation Revocation Hearings Require Competency
State v. Gonzalez, No. 120,179 (Kan. Ct. App. Dec. 27, 2019). Issue: There is no statutory protection requiring a defendant be competent at a hearing to revoke his probation. Is competence constitutionally protected nonetheless at this stage? Answer: …
Updated on December 21, 2019
Updated Transitional Release Requirements
In re Care & Treatment of Quillen, No. 120, 184 (Kan. Ct. App. Oct. 18, 2019). Issue: Is the State required to prove “serious difficulty in controlling behavior,” when arguing a person does not meet the qualifications for …
Posted on January 8, 2019
Simultaneous Consideration No Longer Required for Kansas Homicide Instructions
State v. Sims, No. 115,038 (Kan. Nov. 30, 2018) Issue: The Kansas Supreme Court has previously held that courts must instruct juries to consider both greater and lesser offenses simultaneously in homicide cases. After years of criticism, should courts still require simultaneous instructions? Answer: No. Requiring …
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Updated on December 21, 2019
Party Benefitting from Erroneous Judicial Comment Bears Burden
State v. Boothby, No. 116,505 (Kan. Sept. 6, 2019). Issue: A district judge made an erroneous comment regarding Boothby’s case in front of the jury. Is an erroneous judicial comment made in front of a jury that is not part …
Category: Kansas Criminal Procedure Survey, Trials, Uncategorized Tags: Erroneous Comments, Judicial comment error, Judicial error, Judicial Misconduct