Opinion ID: 4016291
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: introduction

Text: Each criminal defendant is entitled to a fair trial. But there are few, if any, perfect trials. This is inevitable because trials are human endeavors. The essential task of an appellate court when reviewing criminal cases is discerning which proceedings are so imperfect that they are unfair. Certainly, there are singular, critical aspects of a prosecution that cannot be done wrong or done without. Error affecting other aspects can be disregarded as long as the appellate court possesses a specified level of confidence that the error made no difference. This court has been vexed for many years by difficulties in distinguishing one from the other when it comes to error in charging documents in criminal cases. Are such errors potentially fatal to subject matter jurisdiction? If so, how do we tell when they are so imperfect that jurisdiction is implicated? Even if charging documents are not jurisdictional instruments, how do we tell when they are so imperfect that they have failed to fulfill their function of informing the defendant about the crime alleged so that he or she can challenge the State's case? 4 We have state constitutional provisions that shed some light on this subject. We have statutes designed to tell us what must be in a complaint, information, or indictment—the three charging documents conventionally employed in Kansas. And we have dozens and dozens of cases that have wrestled with the nature and content of charging documents, cases nearly as old as the state and as fresh as today's blog post. These cases are listable and describable, but not all are amenable to seamless or even sensible synthesis, the lawyer's stock in trade. One case, in particular, has been the bane of the criminal defense lawyers' existence for more than 25 years: State v. Hall, 246 Kan. 728, 793 P.2d 737 (1990). Today defendant Dunn urges us to reject Hall, at least to the degree that it made it more difficult for defendants to mount a successful jurisdictional challenge based on charging document error raised for the first time on appeal. Dunn argues that this part of Hall has never made sense. Subject matter jurisdiction exists or it does not, and all parties and the court are independently charged with ensuring that it does exist before disposing of any other issue in a case. Dunn insists that the timing of raising the question matters not one whit. After comprehensive study, we have determined that it has been too easy to point out this flaw in Hall and apparently almost impossible for this court and those who come before it to appreciate its other, substantial virtues. Today we review what led this court to Hall and to a recent partial retreat from it, examining historic Kansas constitutional, statutory, and caselaw developments. We attempt to preserve what was good in Hall and say goodbye to its logical and legal infirmities. 5