Kansas Sentencing Guidelines Act

The state of Kansas is one of several states that use statuatory sentencing guidelines to help judges hand down criminal penalties for convicted defendants. Sentencing guidelines are not without some political controversy. Sentencing guidelines depart somewhat from common law sentencing, where judges enjoyed more discretion in making sentencing rulings. Understanding the context, history and details of the Sentencing Guidelines Act helps to inform this political debate.

Legislative History

The Kansas Sentencing Guidelines Act was enacted by the state legislature in 1993. The act became effective on July 1 of that year. The law built on prior legislation that created the Kansas Sentencing Commission and charged them with the task of determining a framework for sentencing guidelines. The recommendations of the Sentencing Commission ultimately became the Sentencing Guidelines Act after revision by the state legislature.

Basics

The Kansas Sentencing Guidelines Act was intended to answer the need for a "determinate sentencing system under which a person who commits a violent crime serves a fixed number of years," according to the Lawrence Journal-World. The system created under the act is a sentencing grid, which provides a list of recommended sentences according to the severity and class of the crime -- felonies with more than three victims, for example, receive much harsher sentences than misdemeanors, for example. Drug crimes are sentenced along a different grid than non-drug crimes.

Off-Grid Crimes

Certain crimes are subject to specific sentences laid out in the legal statute that criminalizes them, and they don't necessarily match up with the Sentencing Guidelines Act's sentencing grid. In Kansas criminal law, these crimes are usually termed "off-grid crimes." They include capital murder and treason as well as various sex offenses and human trafficking. Like the crimes on the grid, sentences are longer for second offenses than they are for first offenses.

Constitutionality

Since the adoption of the Kansas Sentencing Guidelines Act, there have been questions regarding the act's constitutionality in light of subsequent Supreme Court decisions. Specifically, the Supreme Court ruled in New Jersey v. Apprendi, a 2000 case, that defendants had the right under the constitution to have a jury of their peers determine their sentencing. This created a potential problem for the Kansas law, as suggested guidelines could potentially strip that power from juries. The state legislature in the early 2000s amended the act to bring it more in line with the Supreme Court holding in Apprendi.

References

• Kansas Sentencing Commission; Our Mission; 2011
• Lawrence Journal-World: AG's Sentencing Plan on Target, Legislators Say; Dave Toplikar; October 31, 1991
• Sedgwick County; Kansas Sentencing Guidelines; Nola Tedesco Foulston; 2009
• Sedgwick County; Kansas Sentencing Guidelines Grid; 2009
• Kansas Legislative Research Department; Kansas Legislator Briefing Book--Corrections; Athena Andaya and Lauren Douglass; 2011
• Kansas Sentencing Commission: About Us

Resources

• Nat'l Assn. of Criminal Defense Lawyers; Kansas Sentencing Guidelines; Randall Hodgkinson; 2004
• Washburn Law Journal; Durational and Dispositional Departures Under the KSGA; Steven Crossland; 2003