Opinion ID: 2630916
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Application of Kansas' Identical Offense Sentencing Doctrine

Text: Several years after the Batchelder decision, this court applied the identical offense sentencing doctrine in State v. Clements, 241 Kan. 77, 83, 734 P.2d 1096 (1987). In Clements , the defendant was charged with aggravated criminal sodomy under K.S.A. 1986 Supp. 21-3506, a class B felony. On appeal, this court vacated the sentence and ordered that Clements be sentenced to the term applicable when one takes indecent liberties with a child under the age of 14 by performing an act of sodomy, a class C felony defined by K.S.A. 1984 Supp. 21-3503(1)(b). In reaching this holding, this court explained: Where identical offenses are involved, the question is not truly a matter of one being a lesser included offense of the other. Each has identical elements and the decision as to which penalty to seek cannot be a matter of prosecutorial whimsy in charging. As to identical offenses, a defendant can only be sentenced under the lesser penalty. (Emphasis added.) Clements, 241 Kan. at 83, 734 P.2d 1096. Through this language this court distinguished the identical offense sentencing doctrine from lesser included offense principles. This is significant to our discussion because we are dealing with a lesser included offense as defined by the Kansas Legislature in K.S.A. 21-3107(2)(a) (a lesser included offense is, inter alia, a crime that is a lesser degree of the same crime). Two years later, this court applied the Clements holding to the same statutes aggravated sodomy and indecent liberties by committing sodomyand defined the doctrine by clarifying the circumstances in which it applied. We stated: Where two criminal offenses have identical elements but are classified differently for purposes of imposing a penalty, a defendant convicted of either crime may be sentenced only under the lesser penalty provision. (Emphasis added.) State v. Nunn, 244 Kan. 207, 229, 768 P.2d 268 (1989). Significantly, as the emphasized language indicates, the Nunn statement of the doctrine limited its application to circumstances where two criminal offenses were being compared. Subsequently, this court has used the same language in each case where we have applied the doctrine, and, in each of these cases, the doctrine was applied to two separate offenses. E.g., State v. Cooper, 285 Kan. 964, 966-67, 179 P.3d 439 (2008) (applying to K.S.A. 65-4152[a][3] and K.S.A. 65-4159[a]); State v. Fanning, 281 Kan. 1176, 1180, 135 P.3d 1067 (2006) (applying to K.S.A. 65-4152[a][3] and K.S.A. 65-4159); State v. Cherry, 279 Kan. 535, 538-41, 112 P.3d 224 (2005) (applying to K.S.A. 65-4152[a][3] and K.S.A. 65-7006); State v. Campbell, 279 Kan. 1, 4, 10, 106 P.3d 1129 (2005) (applying to K.S.A. 65-4152[a][3] and K.S.A. 65-7006[a]); State v. McAdam, 277 Kan. 136, 145-46, 83 P.3d 161 (2004) (applying to K.S.A. 65-4159[a] and K.S.A. 65-4161[a]). Hence, the critical language defining the application of the identical offense sentencing doctrine in our past cases has two components: (1) two criminal offenses that (2) have identical elements. In contrast, Sandberg attempts to apply the doctrine to severity levels of the same offense. This raises the question of whether the doctrine should apply in the present circumstance.