A Good Lawyer Takes Care of their Client Regardless Of Their Charges

On March 30th the Kansas Supreme Court reversed the findings of the court of appeals and district court, holding that a person convicted of misdemeanor criminal sodomy are not required to register as a sex offender.  State v. Coman, 100,494, 2012 WL 1066115 *1 (Kan. Mar. 30, 2012). 

The defendant, Joshua Coman, pled guilty to a misdemeanor criminal sodomy charge of sodomy between a person and an animal under K.S.A. 21-3505.  The district court, in its sentencing proceedings, found that Coman was required to register as a sex offender according to the Kansas Offender Registration Act (KORA), K.S.A. 22-4901.  KORA contains a list of crimes that require the registration for persons who committed sexually violent crimes.  The crime committed by defendant Coman is not among the crimes on the KORA list.  However, KORA also includes a “catch-all” provision, under which registration is required for crimes involving sexually motivated acts.    

When reversing the court of appeals and district court, the Kansas Supreme Court found that it was not of the legislature’s intent to make registration dependent on the sexual motivation of the defendant.  The court held that “that the legislature did not intend to include the acts constituting the sex crime defined in K.S.A. 21–3505(a)(1) to be included within the catch-all provisions of K.S.A. 22–4902(c)(14).”  

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