Category: Uncategorized

Addressing Egregious Misconduct: The Kansas Supreme Court holds that criminal defendants can forfeit the right to counsel

State v. Trass, No. 122,713, 2024 WL 4311525 (Kan. Sept. 27, 2024). Author: Luke Arney, Staff Editor Issue: Can a criminal defendant forfeit the right to counsel through misconduct as a matter of law? Answer: Yes, a defendant can forfeit the …

State v. Albano: Revisiting the Right to Have a Jury Consider Sentence-Enhancing Prior Convictions

Author: Dahnika Short, Staff Editor  State v. Albano, No. 120,767 (Kan. May 28, 2021)  Issue: Does Section 5 of the Kansas Constitution Bill of Rights guarantee the right to have a jury determine the existence of sentence-enhancing prior convictions under the Kansas Sentencing Guidelines …

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 …

Defendant’s Responsibility for Fact Finding in Constitutional Sentencing Challenges

State v. Espinoza, No. 118,737 (Kan. Apr. 24, 2020). Issue: Whether a high court must remand a case to the lower court to develop the necessary factual record for an as-applied challenge to a sentence arguing it was …

Kansas v. Glover: U.S. Supreme Court Decides Kansas Case About Traffic Stops

Kansas v. Glover, 140 S.Ct. 1183 (2020). Issue:  When an officer learns the registered owner of a vehicle has a revoked driver’s license and initiates a traffic stop, is the inference that the registered owner is also the …

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 …

Protection from Stalking Orders Cannot Restrict Speech

State v. Smith, No. 119,919 (Kan. Ct. App. Sept. 27, 2019). Issue: Smith was convicted for violating her protection from stalking (“PFS”) order that prohibited her from making disparaging statements in public about Perez. Does this provision in …

Lifetime Registration of Juvenile Sex Offenders Found Constitutional

State v. N.R., No. 119,796 (Kan. App. Sept. 27, 2019). Issue: The Kansas Offender Registration Act (KORA) requires lifetime registration as a sex offender for juveniles convicted of severity level 1 felonies.  N.R. was convicted of rape when he was …

A Message from the Editor in Chief

The University of Kansas Law Review is pleased to announce the launch of its all-new Kansas Criminal Procedure Blog, the new home for the Kansas Criminal Procedure Survey.  The Criminal Procedure Survey is a long-standing tradition of the …