Mandate Issued!

The Kansas Court of Appeals issued its MANDATE today. . . so the decision is now final! In all Romeo Juliette filings in Kansas the Courts should ALWAYS inquire whether the offender is OLDER as that is an essential element of the crime.

NO APPEAL

The prosecutor in the case says that she is not going to appeal in the case. . . The mandate will come down soon in the case.

Clarification of Law

The Kansas Court of Appeals issued a ruling on Friday, December 12, 2008 that clarifies that dual charging of children is improper, and that ONLY the OLDER child can be convicted under the State's Romeo & Juliette law. This could potentially remove person felonies from many criminal defendant's criminal history, especially if they pleaded guilty to a violation of this law when they were younger than the other person. Hopefully this case will get some attention by public defenders and criminal defense attorneys and they will look a little deeper into their client's criminal histories, and have some old convictions thrown out.

Some may criticize the ruling because some prosecutors may then begin to charge more harsh person felonies under laws that do not account for the age of the perpetrator. This blog has been set up to help coordinate attorneys who have to deal with that issue. The Juvenile's brief in this case does address some of that. . . Please share thoughts.