Court Opinion

ID: 9789170
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 01:29:37.688418+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:37:20.280291
License: Public Domain

Johnson, J.,
concurring: I write separately only to air my view of the meaning of K.S.A. 21-4636(c). The provision speaks to a defendant murdering someone “for the purpose of receiving” money or property. In my view, that language refers to the circumstance where the defendant’s purpose in killing the specific victim was to receive money or property as a direct consequence of the murder, e.g., a murder-for-hire or a killing to obtain an inheritance *527from the victim.
However, I acknowledge that our long-standing precedent has been to construe the language as encompassing a murder which occurs as a by-product of a robbery or burglary. Generally, in those instances, I perceive that the killer s purpose in killing the victim is to make it easier to take money or property or to avoid detection for the property crime. The purpose of the murder is not to receive money or property because of the particular victim’s death. Nevertheless, I feel constrained by the principle of stare decisis to join in the application of the settled law in this state.
Luckert, J., joins in the foregoing concurring opinion.