Court Opinion

ID: 9577010
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 21:30:50.310319+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:19:50.687249
License: Public Domain

Miller, J.,
concurring: I concur in the result reached by the majority in this case, but I disagree with the conclusion of the majority that the Rules of Evidence, K.S.A. 60-401 et seq., must be scrupulously applied in a preliminary examination. Even in cases where an accused is provided with an error-free trial, and is convicted upon overwhelming evidence of the most heinous crimes, we now open the door to liwersal and new trial if the committing magistrate is later found to have deviated one whit from the Rules of Evidence during the preliminary examination.
A preliminary examination is not a trial. Its primary purpose is to determine whether an accused should be held for trial. The initial determination of whether to issue an arrest warrant may be made upon reliable hearsay, and I see no reason why that should not be the standard for preliminary examinations.
We have some eighty nonlawyer district magistrate judges in Kansas. These are fine, conscientious people, and an asset to the Kansas judicial system; but they have but minimal legal training. We do give them instruction, provide them with manuals and— *604as the majority noted — we require all new district magistrate judges to take and pass an examination on the law and be certified as qualified before they may continue to serve. They have, at most, one or two hours of instruction on the laws of evidence. The majority believes that the magistrates “can apply the statutory rules of evidence without great difficulty.”
Lawyers, on the other hand, spend perhaps five hours a week on the subject of evidence during one or two semesters in law school, plus outside reading and study. This case illustrates that even lawyers cannot apply the Rules of Evidence “without great difficulty.” The trial judge — a lawyer — held the evidence admissible. The three-judge panel of the Court of Appeals — all lawyers- — held it inadmissible. Seven justices of this court — all lawyers — now disagree with the Court of Appeals, and hold the same evidence admissible under two of the twenty-nine or more exceptions to the hearsay rule enumerated in K.S.A. 60-460.
This court should continue its century-old policy and relax the rules of evidence at preliminary examinations.
McFarland, J., joins the foregoing concurring opinion.