Court Opinion

ID: 9559883
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 17:37:25.161825+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:11:50.000361
License: Public Domain

Abbott, J.,
dissenting: This case will be of no significance in
the future, but it is of great significance to those persons to whom it applies.
Historically, and for all crimes committed before July 1, 1993, a defendant had 10 days to appeal after the district court’s power to modify the sentence expired. K.S.A. 22-3608. The trial court had 120 days after a sentence had been imposed or after probation or assignment to a community correctional services program had been revoked to modify the penalty. K.S.A. 1992 Supp. 21-4603(4).
With sentencing guidelines in effect, the purpose of the 120-day modification period is eliminated so any person convicted of committing a crime on or after July 1, 1993, has 10 days after the judgment of the district court to appeal. Thus, for crimes *21committed on or after July 1, 1993, the trial court will no longer have 120 days to modify the punishment imposed.
As I read the opinion, the majority is saying the pre-1988 version of 21-4603(4) and the current version are construed the same. I am in complete agreement that the legislature did not intend to change the procedure it enacted by trying to improve the statutory language in the current version.
The majority, in my opinion, is legislating in an effort to prevent a perceived problem that does not exist. The statute in question was adopted in 1969. I have been a member of one or the other of Kansas’ two appellate courts since 1977. From 1969 to 1977, the Supreme Court heard approximately 3,000 appeals. I am unable to locate any case during that period where this issue surfaced. Since 1977, the two appellate courts have heard over 20,000 appeals; this is only the third case I recall in which this issue was directly or indirectly involved and one of those cases was not published.
The purpose of 21-4603(4) is to give the trial judge wide latitude in modifying sentences. It has an effect of lessening the number of appeals — not increasing them. It gives the trial judge an opportunity to give a convicted person a “taste” of prison. The legislature also obviously wanted the Topeka Correctional Facility to have input in the sentence. Frequently, the trial court called a defendant back from prison and placed him or her on probation prior to the appeal time running. The legislature then allowed the defendant to appeal the sentence imposed.
The legislature next, in my opinion, allowed a defendant to file a second motion to modify within 120 days after receipt by the clerk of the district court of the mandate from the appellate court. This allows the trial judge a second look after the defendant has spent inore time in prison and after the trial judge has had time to reflect on what a fair, impartial, and dispassionate sentence should be.
The majority points to no language in the statute to justify a different result than that reached in State v. Reed, 248 Kan. 506, 809 P.2d 553 (1991). Instead, it forces a defendant to make a choice that was never intended by the legislature and which is contrary to our existing law. A defendant has always received the benefit of the doubt, and a statute is normally construed most *22favorably to an accused. State v. Frazier, 248 Kan. 963, 971, 811 P.2d 1240 (1991).
We have always required a defendant to include all known grounds for appeal or lose the right to have that issue considered on appeal. Now we are telling a defendant that he or she may file a motion to modify, have it heard and denied, and then appeal, and so long as he or she appeals only the conviction and does not appeal the trial court’s refusal to modify, he or she has the statutory right to request the modification a second time within 120 days after receipt of the mandate by the clerk of the district court. But, if he or she includes the denial of the motion to modify in the first appeal, he or she cannot again file a motion to modify the sentence.
I have no concern of successive appeals. The doctrine of res judicata would take care of that'problem. My concern is this court legislating jurisdiction granted by the legislature to the trial court to take a second, more detached, look at modifying a sentence. Permitting the trial court to take a second look at modifying a defendant’s sentence is clearly authorized by the legislature.
I would reverse the trial court and the Court of Appeals and would hold the trial court had jurisdiction to hear the motion to modify. The language of the statute is clear and unambiguous. The 1988 amendment to 21-4603 makes clear that the statute provides for both a pre-appeal and a post-appeal motion to modify sentence when the appeal is determined adversely to the defendant. The 1988 amendment clarifies that position by setting aside in a new subparagraph the right to a post-appeal motion to modify sentence if the appeal was decided adversely to the defendant. The identical language in the version before the amendment reinforces that view. The “except” language in subsection (4)(a) of the 1988 amendment applies to a motion to modify sentence within 120 days of sentencing, while subsection (4)(b) clearly states the legislative intent to provide for a post-appeal motion to modify sentence, to move “for at least a more lenient sentence” as noted in State v. Saft, 244 Kan. 517, 521, 769 P.2d 675 (1989).