Earlier this year I linked to the video of my argument before the Kansas Supreme Court in a case involving the Kansas DUI statute and sentencing. On August 29, 2014, the Kansas Supreme Court released their opinion in State v. Reese and I am happy to say that we won! The Supreme Court agreed with me that people who were sentenced after the law changed in 2011 should get the benefit of the new law in determining their sentences. This will reverse some felony convictions.
In 2001, the Kansas legislature changed the law to say that any DUI diversions or convictions in a person’s lifetime would count against them. The previous law had only gone back 5 years. Because of the “lifetime lookback”, a lot of people were charged and convicted of felony DUI’s (a 3rd DUI was a felony). Some of the prior convictions dated back to the 1970’s and 1980’s but were now being used to raise sentences. In 2011, the law changed again to say that only DUI diversions or convictions which occurred after July 1, 2001 would count against someone. My client in this case was arrested before the law changed and charged with a felony DUI due to some very old convictions. We went to a jury trial and lost, unfortunately. However, his sentencing took place after July of 2011. If the new law applied to him he would only have a first time misdemeanor conviction. Because the trial court applied the old law, he was convicted of a felony.
We appealed to the Court of Appeals, which agreed with the trial court and held that the felony conviction should stand. I appealed to the Kansas Supreme Court and they eventually agreed with me that the new law should apply and reversed his sentence. So, he no longer has a felony. There were a whole lot of other people in the same boat and this opinion will reduce the severity of their convictions and sentences.
It took 5 years of battling to get to this point. All we ever wanted was to avoid a felony. People who get convicted of felonies have real problems getting jobs, renting apartments, voting, traveling out of the country and cannot own or possess a gun, among other issues. So, it was a good day for a lot of people. The Kansas legislature realized that the “lifetime lookback” was too harsh and they changed the law to avoid so many people getting convicted of felony DUI cases. So, we brought some of the people charged under the old law in line with the current thought on DUI sentencing. It was the rare good day for DUI law in Kansas.