Kansas Criminal Cases 3/6/20: Defining "Deadly Weapon" Under KORA

KANSAS COURT OF APPEALS

STATE V. HAYES, NO. 120417: BREACH OF PRIVACY

1. To determine whether someone has a reasonable expectation of privacy under K.S.A. 2019 Supp. 21-6101(a)(6) we consider (1) whether the person subjectively believes he or she has an expectation of privacy in the situation and (2) whether a reasonable person in the same or similar circumstances would have an expectation of privacy. The answers to these questions are highly fact specific.

2. A person violates K.S.A. 2019 Supp. 21-6101(a)(6) if the person independently conceals any of the recording devices listed in the statute or if the person conceals him or herself while using one of the listed recording devices to secretly record a person as prohibited by the statute.

KANSAS SUPREME COURT

STATE V. CARTER, NO. 116223:

Reversing the Court of Appeals, and affirming the district court's finding that a taser is a deadly weapon for KORA purposes.  The Kansas Supreme Court held that a district court does not have to pronounce from the bench that KORA is ordered because registration is not part of a defendant's sentence.

Justice Rosen & Beier dissenting.

1. A district judge's written journal entry showing that a defendant is a violent offender subject to the Kansas Offender Registration Act because he or she used a deadly weapon in the commission of a person felony is an adequate finding under the Act.

2. A "deadly weapon," as that phrase is used in K.S.A. 2019 Supp. 22-4902(e)(2), means any firearm or other device, instrument, material, or substance that, from the manner in which it is used or is intended to be used, is calculated or likely to produce death. Substantial competent evidence supported the district judge's finding in this case that a Taser used by the aggravated robbery defendant was a deadly weapon.

3. A defendant who displays a weapon to the victim of an aggravated robbery after obtaining the money in a store safe, but before leaving the store, brandishes the weapon and thus "uses" it in the commission of the robbery, as required by K.S.A. 2019 Supp. 22-4902(e)(2).

4. A district judge's finding that a defendant used a deadly weapon in the commission of a person felony does not violate the rule of Apprendi v. New Jersey, 530 U.S. 466, 120 S. Ct. 2348, 147 L. Ed. 2d 435 (2000).