Saturday, March 15, 2014

No KORA requirements in 1989, so no KORA obligations as part of sentence in 2012

Joanna Labastida won in State v. Dandridge, No. 109,066 (Kan. App. Feb. 21, 2014), vacating the district court's order requiring offender registration as part of a Seward County aggravated incest sentence.  The 2012 conviction was based on acts taking place in 1989.  The COA held that noted that generally, sentencing provisions in effect at the time of the offense apply and applied the sentencing provisions from 1989 in this case:
At the time Dandridge committed his offense, there was no offender registration requirement in Kansas. Because offender registration is part of a criminal sentence and because Dandridge must be sentenced based on the law in effect at the time he committed his crime, we conclude the district court erred by ordering Dandridge to register as a sex offender. Accordingly, we vacate Dandridge's sentence and remand for resentencing with directions that the district court refrain from imposing registration requirements under KORA. We do not need to reach Dandridge's argument that the current version of the KORA violates the Ex Post Facto Clause of the United States Constitution.
The nature of offender registration requirements is a very hot topic and will likely be dealt with in many other cases in the not-too-distant future.

[Update: the state did not file a PR and the mandate issued on March 27, 2014.]

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