Court Opinion

ID: 9781925
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-30 17:38:40.693168+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:34:41.874035
License: Public Domain

Greene, J.,
concurring: I agree with my colleagues that Willis Harvey’s conviction must be affirmed, but I write separately only to express concern about the practice of having the trial court eliminate the defense of compulsion on motion in limine. As our Supreme Court expressed in State v. Irons, 250 Kan. 302, 306-09, 827 P.2d 722 (1992), motions in limine should not be used to “ ‘choke off a valid defense in a criminal action’ ” because “ ‘it is fundamental to a fair trial to allow the accused to present his version of tire events so that the jury may properly weigh the evidence and reach its verdict. The right to present one’s theory of defense is absolute.’ ” 250 Kan. at 309. Despite this language, our Supreme Court did not expressly forbid the elimination of the defense by motion in limine.
With due respect, I believe the practice of ekminating a criminal defendant’s sole defense of compulsion by motion in hmine and prior to presentation of the evidence to a jury is a violation of the defendant’s fundamental right to a jury trial and otherwise deprives the defendant of his or her right to present a defense. Surely we would not sanction the pretrial deprivation of a criminal defendant of any other affirmative defensive strategy, whether alibi, self-defense, voluntary intoxication, or a host of others. Similarly, I do not *113believe we should permit the pretrial elimination of the defense of compulsion; constitutional considerations prohibit the procedure employed here by the district court.
Perhaps our Supreme Court will have occasion to reexamine this practice in the near future. Here, Harvey s own testimony clearly precludes the defense because he admitted that he was “in a position of safety” the instant he left the correctional facility. His failure to report at this time does not satisfy the fifth element of Irons, and his conviction must be affirmed.