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Newsbrief:
Kansas
Supreme
Court
Says
Cut
Methamphetamine
Sentences
7/9/04
In January, the Kansas Supreme
Court declared that the state's sentencing guidelines for people who manufacture
methamphetamine were unlawfully harsh. The court held that anyone
convicting of cooking meth should be resentenced to much lower prison terms.
In a ruling June 25, the state Supreme Court expanded and clarified that
ruling to say that it also included people who been sentenced after pleading
guilty. As a result of the two rulings, the Kansas City Star reported,
"hundreds" of Sunflower State meth cooks will serve drastically shorter
sentences.
In its January decision in
the case of Brian McAdam, the court found that that the state had two different
laws addressing penalties for meth cooks. Kansas prosecutors had
been using the most recent law, passed in 1990 and aimed specifically at
methamphetamine, to send cooks to prison on double-digit sentences.
But the court held that when two laws cover the same criminal activity,
defendants can only be sentenced under the law containing the lesser sentence.
The impact was dramatic.
Meth cooks sentenced to 11 ½ to 17 years in prison before the ruling
are being resentenced to between one and four years now. The question
the court addressed in its most recent ruling was whether to extend that
same right to seek a new sentence to people who had not been convicted
but had instead pled guilty. According to state corrections officials,
some 440 people are eligible to seek new, reduced sentences under the rulings.
Prosecutors are grumbling.
"Unfortunately, this just adds to the fallout from the McAdam decision,"
Johnson County District Attorney Paul Morrison told the Star.
The Kansas legislature this
year passed a bill correcting the wording of the methamphetamine statutes
so that those convicted in the future will face the more serious sentences.
But in the June 25 ruling in the case of Theresa Barnes, the Supreme Court
blocked the legislature's effort to have the law applied retroactively.
Thus, the court's ruling will aid only those persons convicted under the
old law, not those who get caught now or in the future.
The Kansas Supreme Court
opinion in the January case, Kansas v. McAdam, is available online at:
http://www.kscourts.org/kscases/supct/2004/20040130/88139.htm
The ruling in the June 25
case, Kansas v. Barnes, is available online at:
http://www.kscourts.org/kscases/supct/2004/20040625/89628.htm
-- END --
|
Issue #345, 7/9/04
Editorial: Time for Congress to Get Real |
In the Wake of Blakely: Federal Sentencing Chaos as Defense Attorneys, Prosecutors, Lawmakers Ponder How to Respond |
House Votes Down Medical Marijuana Bill -- Election Year Politics, Organized Opposition Cited |
International AIDS Conference Puts Focus on Thai War on Drugs |
Making it Official: More Initiatives Move Toward November Ballot |
ALERT: "Thank or Spank" Your Congressman for This Week's Medical Marijuana Vote |
Newsbrief: Rep. Ron Paul Brings Pain Doctor Prosecution Issue to House |
Newsbrief: US 9th Circuit Court of Appeals Rejects DEA Motion for New Hemp Hearing |
Newsbrief: Kansas Supreme Court Says Cut Methamphetamine Sentences |
Newsbrief: Tommy Chong Walks Out of Prison |
Newsbrief: Iranians Protest US, UK Blind Eye to Afghan Opium Crop |
Newsbrief: United Arab Emirates Ponders First Step Toward Harm Reduction |
Newsbrief: Head of National Drug Intelligence Center Fired |
Newsbrief: Prohibition as a Marketing Tool -- Camel Ad Campaign Touts "Forbidden Fruit" Appeal |
Newsbrief: This Week's Corrupt Cops Story |
Newsbrief: California Prisons "Dysfunctional," State Report Concludes |
Movie Opening: Maria Full of Grace |
Media Scan: New CSDP Ad -- Richard Paey and Rush Limbaugh |
This Week in History |
Psilocybin Cancer Research Study Still Seeking Participants |
The Reformer's Calendar
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