Case Title: State v. Sexton

Citation: 232 Kan. 539, 657 P.2d 43

Docket Number: 54,303

State: kansas

Court: Kansas Supreme Court

Date: 1983-01-14T00:00:00Z

Document:
232 Kan. 539 (1983)
657 P.2d 43
STATE OF KANSAS, Appellant,
v.
BOBBY R. SEXTON, JR., Appellee.
No. 54,303

Supreme Court of Kansas.
Opinion filed January 14, 1983.
Kevin P. Moriarty, assistant district attorney, argued the cause, and Robert T. Stephan, attorney general, Dennis W. Moore, district attorney, and Joseph E. Cosgrove, assistant district attorney, were with him on the brief for appellant.
Louis S. Wexler, of Wexler, Wingfield & Zemites, of Shawnee Mission, argued the cause, and William D. Wingfield and Donald L. Zemites, of the same firm were with him on the brief for appellee.
The opinion of the court was delivered by
HOLMES, J.:
This is an appeal by the State under K.S.A. 22-3602(b)(1) from the dismissal by the trial court, on motion of the defendant at the preliminary hearing stage, of criminal charges against Bobby R. Sexton, Jr. The defendant was charged with an attempt to conspire to commit murder. The trial court found there was no such crime as attempted conspiracy and therefore dismissed the action.
There were no facts presented to the trial court and the parties have stipulated that for appeal purposes, the allegations of the information may be taken as true and are controlling. Greatly summarized, the information alleges that the defendant Bobby R. Sexton, Jr. attempted to conspire with two agents of the United States Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms unit for the agents to murder Sexton's wife. Several meetings were held in which a price for the murder was determined and details for carrying out the murder were furnished by Sexton, including the present whereabouts of his estranged wife.
It is undisputed that the two agents were working undercover after receiving a tip from the Olathe police department that Sexton was seeking someone to murder his wife. It is also *540 undisputed that neither of the two agents ever had any intention of entering into an actual conspiracy to murder Sexton's wife. Based upon the information secured by the USATF agents, the defendant was charged with an attempt to conspire to commit the murder of his wife. He was not charged with attempted murder nor conspiracy to commit murder and the State concedes that under the facts alleged, such charges would not lie. The sole question before this court is whether under the Kansas statutes, as they existed at the time, there was any such crime as attempted conspiracy. The trial court found that no such crime, essentially the crime of solicitation, was included in our statutes. We agree.
The State contends that the facts alleged in the information support a charge of attempted conspiracy to commit murder in violation of K.S.A. 21-3301, 21-3302 and 21-3401. K.S.A. 21-3401 defines first-degree murder. The pertinent portions of K.S.A. 21-3301 provide:
K.S.A. 21-3302 provides in part:
It appears to be the position of the State that conspiracy, unlike the crime of attempt, is a substantive crime which can be charged even when the object crime is completed, while an attempt merges with the object crime if that crime is actually consummated. As such, an attempt to commit the crime of conspiracy is a chargeable offense if the conspiracy itself is not completed. Appellant, on the other hand, makes several arguments, as pointed out in the trial court's opinion, to the effect there is no such crime as attempted conspiracy.
The learned trial judge in his order of dismissal stated:
"The Court makes the following findings:
We concur with the ultimate ruling of the trial court and much of what is said in the opinion. However, in view of our opinion in State v. Logan & Cromwell, 232 Kan. 646, 656 P.2d 777 (1983), we do not concur in the suggestion that legal impossibility, if it exists, is always a defense to a charge of an attempted crime. While it is true that it is an ultimate function of the courts to determine whether a statute or a combination of statutes actually proscribes certain conduct as criminal, great weight must be given to the intent and action of the legislature when it determines to establish certain conduct as constituting a new crime. The 1982 Legislature specifically adopted the crime of criminal solicitation. L. 1982, ch. 132, § 1. The legislative history of the new enactment reveals that during hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee on March 3, 1982, the Johnson County District Attorney advised the committee, inter alia, that:
Minutes of the meeting of the Judiciary Committee of the House of Representatives held March 22, 1982, reveal that representatives of the Kansas County and District Attorneys Association testified to the effect that S.B. 751 (subsequently enacted as L. 1982, ch. 132, § 1) created "a new crime known as criminal solicitation." The positions of the Johnson County District Attorney and the Kansas County and District Attorneys Association were supported at the hearing by the Shawnee County District Attorney, who urged enactment of the new bill.
It has long been the rule in Kansas that all crimes are established by legislative act. There are no common law crimes in the state, and there can be no conviction except for such crimes *543 as are defined by statute. State v. Young, 55 Kan. 349, 356, 40 Pac. 659 (1895).
It is also the rule in this state that a criminal statute will not be "extended by courts to embrace acts or conduct not clearly included within its prohibitions." State v. Doyen, 224 Kan. 482, 488, 580 P.2d 1351 (1978). Our criminal statutes are to be construed strictly against the State. State v. Kearns, 229 Kan. 207, 208, 623 P.2d 507 (1981).
It is a fundamental rule of statutory construction, to which all other rules are subordinate, that the intent of the legislature governs when that intent can be ascertained. Kansas State Board of Healing Arts v. Dickerson, 229 Kan. 627, 629 P.2d 187 (1981); State v. Seymour, 5 Kan. App.2d 95, 612 P.2d 1248 (1980). The 1982 Legislature, by the enactment of L. 1982, ch. 132, § 1, has revealed that its intent in enacting the attempt and conspiracy statutes did not include solicitation as a crime. It is also a rule of statutory construction that older statutes are subordinated to newer enactments and it is the latest expression of the legislative will which controls if there is possible conflicting construction in a case. Farmers State Bank & Trust Co. of Hays v. City of Yates Center, 229 Kan. 330, 338, 624 P.2d 971 (1981); City of Salina v. Jaggers, 228 Kan. 155, 169, 612 P.2d 618 (1980).
The legislature has now specifically made criminal solicitation a substantive crime by enactment of the following statute which became effective May 13, 1982:
This act appears to be a legislative recognition that prior to May 13, 1982, Kansas had no criminal statutes which covered the fact situation presented by the instant case and that the existing *544 attempt and conspiracy statutes were inadequate to reach criminal solicitation.
The solicitation of the USATF officers by the defendant, in seeking to have his wife murdered, is not only morally reprehensible but constitutes totally unacceptable social behavior of a type ordinarily prohibited by the criminal statutes. It is unfortunate that Kansas did not have a solicitation statute which would allow this defendant's prosecution and it was only through the alert and competent work of Olathe police officers and the USATF agents that a serious crime was prevented. Much as we might desire to do so, it is not our function to create a crime where the legislature has not done so. The members of the legislature are to be commended upon their speedy action in moving to fill an existing gap in our criminal code once it was called to their attention.
The judgment is affirmed.