Governor grants clemency to 8

Here is a Kansas Reflector article reporting that Governor Kelly granted clemency to eight people last week. The article has some nice background on the recipients and also some historical information about clemency practice in Kansas.

As noted in the article, grants of clemency can be risky for politicians:

“There is some political risk in doing this,” the governor said. “Your opponent, given the opportunity, can and will use it against you if somebody you pardon does something wrong. So I think governors tend to weigh the political risk pretty heavily, because there is a downside.”

Still, she said, “we have to realize that we’re dealing with human beings here.”

As noted in the article, there has not been a lot of success in the pardon/commutation world in Kansas in recent decades. But this might be a sign that defenders should not forget about this option for clients with stories of procedural injustice that cannot be remedied by the court system. 

Wichita defense lawyer wins acquittal in international criminal tribunal

Kurt P. Kerns won an acquittal for his client, Dick Prudence Munyeshuli, in an international criminal tribunal in Arusha, Tanzania. As described in the judgment here, his client was charged with contempt for allegedly improperly revealing the identities of protected witnesses and having improper conduct with protected witnesses in a previous international criminal prosecution. The judge found that although Mr. Munyeshuli had some culpability, the prosecution had not proved its case:

The evidence presented by the Defence reflects that Mr. Munyeshuli’s Lead Counsel, Mr. Peter Robinson, instructed him to commit the violation at the heart of this charge. Mr. Munyeshuli deserves a warning for his conduct in these circumstances and not a criminal conviction. I am entering a finding of NOT GUILTY for Mr. Munyeshuli under Count 3 of the Nzabonimpa Indictment. 

Congratulations and great work, Kurt!