Kansas Offender Registration Act (KORA)

 

Kansas Offender Registration Act (KORA)

Early this month, the Kansas Supreme Court held that KORA does not require a defendant to personally use a weapon during the offence for the offender registration requirements to apply.  State v. Nambo  281 P.3d 525 (Kan. 2012).  Defendant Gabriel Nambo argued that the district court and Court of Appeals should not have required him to register under KORA “because the definition of an ‘offender’ under K.S.A. 22-4902(a)(7) does not include unarmed accomplices,” after he pled guilty to aggravated robbery.  Nambo was an accomplice to a three-man robbery.  He and two other men stopped a vehicle, and while one map pointed a gun at the driver and ordered him out of the vehicle, Nambo and the other man jumped in and drove away. 

Under KORA, a person convicted of a felony in which a deadly weapon was used, must register.  By reading the plain language of the statute, the court determined that because K.S.A. 2204902(a)(7), which requires “any person who, on or after July 1, 2006, is convicted of any person felony and the court makes a finding on the record that a deadly weapon was used in the commission of such person felony” to register, is in the passive voice the statute only “requires that a ‘deadly weapon [be] used’ in the commission of the offense.”  Moreover, because there is not an “express requirement that the weapon be used personally by the defendant,” the statute covers accomplices. 

For more information regarding KORA registration contact Dionne or Lindsey at 913.948.9490.

 Don't Forget To Visit Our Website:  www.ericksonscherff.com