Court Opinion

ID: 9781778
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-30 17:31:57.651001+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:13:54.383046
License: Public Domain

Knudson, J.,
concurring: I fully agree with Judge Larson’s reasoning and the specific holding announced. I write separately to express my dissatisfaction with State v. Frazier, 30 Kan. App. 2d 398, 42 P.3d 188, rev. denied 274 Kan. 1115 (2002). Respectfully, I am convinced Frazier is wrongly decided for two reasons.
First, the sentence imposed by the district court in Frazier was not illegal. In State v. Duke, 263 Kan. 193, 194, 946 P.2d 1375 (1997), the court stated:
‘We have defined an illegal sentence as a sentence imposed by a court without jurisdiction, a sentence which does not conform to the statutory provision, either in the character or the term of the punishment authorized, or a sentence which is ambiguous with respect to tire time and manner in which it is to be served. [Citation omitted.]”
In Frazier, the district court clearly had jurisdiction of subject matter and the person of the defendant with the sentence imposed as proscribed for a drug severity level 1 felony. Even if K.S.A. 1999 Supp. 65-7006(a) and K.S.A. 65-4152(a)(3) are identical crimes as held in Frazier, the fact remains Frazier was charged under 65-7006 and did not interpose any objections before the district court. In labeling the sentence as “illegal,” the Frazier panel was able to avoid the thorny questions that arise when a defendant plea bar*735gains and enters a dispositive plea. Moreover, Frazier purports to be grounded upon the holdings in State v. Nunn, 244 Kan. 207, 768 P.2d 268 (1989), and State v. Clements, 241 Kan. 77, 734 P.2d 1096 (1987), but neither case holds the underlying sentence to be illegal. Rather, Nunn adopts the holding in Clements that “[a]s to identical offenses, a defendant can only be sentenced under the lesser penalty.” 241 Kan. at 83. This does not suggest to me that imposition of the greater sentence was illegal, it was simply the wrong sentence under the circumstances of the case.
Secondly, K.S.A. 65-4152(a)(3) and K.S.A. 1999 Supp. 65-7006(a) are not identical offenses. As correctly noted by the Frazier panel, the statutes use different language to describe the respective offenses. Notwithstanding, the panel then proceeds to conclude this is a distinction without a difference as both prohibit the same identical conduct. The difficulty is that both statutes do not prohibit the same identical conduct. K.S.A. 1999 Supp. 65-7006(a) prohibits possession of drugs used to make methamphetamine. K.S.A. 65-4152(a)(3) prohibits possession of drug paraphernalia. To conclude that the offenses are identical required the Frazier panel to construct an interpolation inconsistent with the logic and expressed reasoning in Nunn and Clements. In both of those cases the allegations to support a charge of either aggravated criminal sodomy or indecent liberties were identical:
“Aggravated criminal sodomy is:
“(a) Sodomy with a child who is not married to the offender and who is under 16 years of age.” K.S.A. 1987 Supp. 21-3506.
(1) Indecent liberties with a child is engaging in any of idle following acts with a child who is not married to the offender and who is under 16 years of age:
“(b) sodomy.” K.S.A. 1984 Supp. 21-3503.
As the Supreme Court could not divine legislative intent when faced with two statutes that were identical as to elements, the common sense result was to conclude only the lesser penalty could be imposed to prevent arbitrary charging by prosecutors. To extend the Nunn and Clements holdings to the circumstances of Frazier is unwarranted. The elements test is tenuous, and the result wholly ignores legislative intent to ratchet up the penalty for possession *736of ingredients necessary to cook methamphetamine while imposing a less severe penalty for possession of drug paraphernalia.
I concur in the majority’s opinion affirming the judgment of the district court.