On November 19, 2010, the Kansas Supreme Court released an opinion vacating the conviction of Isaac Duncan and clarifying a defendant’s rights in a plea hearing. In State v. Duncan, Mr. Duncan appealed the district court’s upward durational departure ordered pursuant to a plea agreement. An upward durational departure results in a harsher sentence for a crime than the statute requires, typically additional months or years in prison. Usually, an upward durational departure is only appropriate if a jury finds there are aggravating factors in a case which mandate a harsher sentence. In this case, because there was a plea of guilty, no jury decided whether an upward durational departure was proper. Mr. Duncan’s attorney argued that because no jury was empanelled for this issue, the departure was an illegal sentence. To address this argument, the Kansas Supreme Court was forced to decide whether Mr. Duncan voluntarily, knowingly, and intelligently waived his right to have a jury determination on this issue in his plea hearing.
In every plea hearing, a defendant must make of voluntary, knowing, and intelligent waiver of his trial rights before the court may accept the plea of guilty. In this case, “the district court informed Duncan that by pleading guilty he was relinquishing the following rights: (1) his right to a trial; (2) his right to raise any defenses to the charge; (3) his right to have the State prove each offense; (4) his right to compel witness testimony; and (5) his right to testify in his own defense.” However, the court did not ask the defendant to waive his right to have a jury determine whether aggravating factors existed which could allow for an upward durational departure.
The court found that a “waiver of the trial jury, standing alone, does not effectively waive the defendant’s right to have a jury for the upward durational departure sentence proceeding.” In addition, the court went on the find that a jury should not be brought in to decide the sole issue of whether an upward durational departure is appropriate. Therefore, a judge must have the defendant voluntarily, knowingly, and intelligently waive this right at the plea hearing or an upward durational departure pursuant to a plea agreement will be illegal.
This case is an example of the complexities involved after a person has decided to plead guilty to a charge. Even throughout the plea process, a person must understand their rights. For an attorney to guide you through all the complexities of the criminal trial process, contact Bell Folsom, P.A.