Kansas Sentencing Law Creates Disparity for Old Law Prisoners

Hundreds of Kansas prisoners who committed crimes prior to July 1, 1993 are serving sentences that would have been much shorter under current law. These “old law” prisoners are serving sentences imposed prior to enactment of the state’s 1992 Sentencing Guideline Act, which was designed to eliminate racial and geographical disparities in sentencing.

That Act established a sentencing system that took into account the type of crime committed and the previous record of the defendant. It called for shorter sentences for property crimes and longer sentences for violent crimes.

The guidelines were retroactively applied by the Kansas Legislature to over 2,000 prisoners convicted of relatively minor crimes, but it left the sentences of more than 4,000 prisoners convicted of more serious crimes intact. The Kansas Supreme Court held in 1994 that the two classes of prisoners created by the Act did not violate the 14^th Amendment’s guarantee to equal protection of the law.

Sentencing structure is the most significant distinction between the old and new laws, said defense attorney Richard Ney. The old law provided for an indeterminate range, such as 20 to life for rape. When a prisoner could be released was determined by the Kansas Parole Board, which has since been abolished. The new guidelines provide for specific sentences, and rape, for instance, results in an average sentence of 12 years and 10 months in prison for a defendant without prior convictions. There are about 400 “old law” prisoners still doing time.

“Here I am doing 27 years just to see the parole board,” said prisoner Rick Redford. “Had I been convicted in 1993, I would have been out in 2005 without even seeing a parole board.”

Redford, 55, was arrested in May 1986 after a 22 year-old woman said she was kidnapped, raped and beaten for two weeks at a rural farmhouse. She said she was taken captive because Redford mistakenly believed she had stolen $11,000 in drug money.

Redford, who was convicted of six felony charges and sentenced to life plus 25 years in prison, has always denied the charge. One of his two co-defendants testified the woman voluntarily came to the farm after an argument with an old boyfriend, who went to her parents’ house and accused her of being a drug addict and prostitute. “Was I a drug dealer? Yes,” Redford said. “I did it for years.”

Sherman Wright admits his guilt to burglary and aggravated robbery convictions, which resulted in a 69 year-to-life sentence that will keep him in prison until at least 2024. Wright’s sister, Cynthia Crawford, points out that her brother’s crimes are relatively minor compared to some prisoners.

“He never used any kind of a weapon; he never hurt anybody. I don’t understand how they can let him sit in there and rot like that when people keep going in for killing or raping kids and getting right back out,” she said. “I know it hurts him to see people come and go, come and go, for crimes that were way past his.”

Those under the old law have different rules applied to them when released on parole. Under the new law, there is no required parole supervision upon completion of the sentence. “If you have an old sentence, it’s a whole different issue,” said Wright. Old sentences require a grant of parole, which can take years to obtain.

“It’s a little discouraging,” said prisoner Ed Nees, who had his parole revoked in 2009 for a technical violation and was told at a recent hearing it would be at least another year before he is released. Currently, no efforts are being made to change the disparity between the old and new sentencing laws in Kansas.

Source: Wichita Eagle

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