32 Kan. App. 2d 642 - State v. Martin’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

2 state decisions

Most-quoted passages

The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 2 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““Apparently, the premise underlying the State’s argument is that codefendants should receive disparate punishment for committing the same crime based upon their respective roles in the criminal enterprise. The State contends that the defendant who conceives, plans, and directs a criminal activity is more culpable than the persons who execute the plan and actually commit the crime. This argument suggests that an aider and abettor should be more harshly punished than the principal actor. “As the majority notes, the legislature specifically provided a means for the sentencing court to mete out different sentences to codefendants based upon relative culpability. Under K.S.A. 2003 Supp. 21-4716(c)(1), the district court is permitted to downwardly depart based upon the mitigating factor that the offender had a minor or passive role in the crime. Unlike the majority, I do not read the specific inclusion of the mitigating factor as supporting an argument that we should further widen the disparity in sentencing between codefendants committing the same crime by also permitting an upward departure for the leader and organizer’ of the criminal enterprise. To the contrary, the fact that the legislature considered the concept of relative culpability and chose to include that reason in the mitigating factors, but not in the aggravating factors, cuts against the proposed creation of a ‘ringleader’ upward departure. Cf. State v. Favela, 259 Kan. 215, 234-35 , 911 P.2d 792 (1996) (the doctrine”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the dissent
   e.g. State v. Martin

2. ““K.S.A. 1994 Supp. 21-4716(b)(2)(A) specifically lists the victim’s young age as an aggravating factor but 21-4716(b)(1) says nothing about the defendant’s young age being a mitigating factor. Even though the list of mitigating factors is nonexclusive, the doctrine of expressio unius est exclusio alterius applies here, and, thus, the legislature must not have intended for the defendant’s young age to be a mitigating factor. The fact the defendant was only 17 years old at tire time of the offense is not a substantial and compelling reason justifying departure as a matter of law, but it may be considered as part of the entire package.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the dissent
   e.g. State v. Martin