Court of Appeals of Kansas

The Kansas Court of Appeals reversed an attempted-murder conviction, holding that preliminary hearing testimony obtained while the defendant’s right to self-representation was violated cannot be admitted at trial under the Confrontation Clause, and that the forfeiture-by-wrongdoing exception did not apply where the defendant’s discouragements of cooperation occurred nearly a year before trial.

The Kansas Court of Appeals held that the three-year felon-in-possession statute, K.S.A. 21-6304(a)(2), is facially constitutional under both the Second Amendment and section 4 of the Kansas Constitution Bill of Rights, while declining to resolve the Court of Appeals split on whether section 4 provides broader protections than the Second Amendment.

The Kansas Court of Appeals held that a Batson error in striking an alternate juror who never participated in deliberations is harmless beyond a reasonable doubt, and that a speedy-trial claim is waived when the defendant fails to object to the trial court’s inadequate Barker findings.