Adult sentence can't be consecutive to juvenile sanction

Rachel Pickering and Sarah "The Kid" Morrison won in State v. Crawford, No. 98,312 (Kan. App. June 13, 2008), reversing the district court’s denial of a motion to correct illegal sentence. Crawford claimed the sentencing court erred in ruling his adult sentences consecutive to his juvenile adjudications. The COA agreed and reversed his sentence. The COA held:

This appeal raises the question of whether an adult sentence can be consecutive to a juvenile sanction. This is the first time this issue has been addressed in Kansas. A court's power to impose consecutive sentences flows from statutory authority. Kansas sentencing statutes require some consecutive sentences in certain cases and give the court discretion to impose consecutive sentences in other circumstances. Because none of the consecutive-sentence statutes expressly include probations or imprisonments arising from juvenile adjudications, we hold the district court had no authority to impose a consecutive adult sentence. We vacate the sentence and remand.

The court looked specifically at K.S.A. 21-4608(c), which states in relevant part that, "[a]ny person who is convicted and sentenced for a crime committed while on probation . . . shall serve the sentence consecutively to the term or terms under which the person was on probation . . . ." Regarding these mandatory consecutive sentences, the court held:

Based on the legislature's exclusion of specific language listing juvenile adjudications, we conclude that body meant to exclude juvenile adjudications from cases calling for consecutive adult sentences. The court here had no authority to impose a consecutive sentence. Thus, this was an illegal sentence.

The court also noted that the legislature has since clarified the law on this subject. The court cited K.S.A. 2007 Supp. 38-2376(a), dealing with the release of juvenile offenders:

"When a juvenile offender has reached the age of 23 years, has been convicted as an adult while serving a term of incarceration at a juvenile correctional facility, or has completed the prescribed terms of incarceration at a juvenile correctional facility, together with any conditional release following the program, the juvenile shall be discharged by the commissioner from any further obligation under the commitment unless the juvenile was sentenced pursuant to an extended jurisdiction juvenile prosecution upon court order and the commissioner transfers the juvenile to the custody of the secretary of corrections." K.S.A. 2007 Supp. 38-2376(a) (New language is emphasized.)

Had that statute been in effect here, Crawford would have been discharged from his juvenile program and could have served his adult sentence.

Thus, under this case, or K.S.A. 2007 Supp. 38-2376(a), it appears that an adult sentence can not be run consecutively to a juvenile sanction.

[Update: the state did not file a PR and the mandate issued on July 17, 2008].