End of Year Review: 2021 Criminal Justice Heroes
by Jennifer Roth, Deputy Appellate Defender
The end of the year is a good time to reflect on how a years’ work has shaped up, and to recognize those whose contributions made a difference in that work. Accordingly, The Rap Sheet editors asked Clayton Perkins (Chief Capital Appellate Defender) and I, the co-chairs of KACDL’s Legislative Committee, to pick five criminal justice heroes of the strange year that was 2021. These are people who, in some way, improved the lives of our clients and their families in the past year.
Representative Russ Jennings. Rep. Jennings chaired the House Corrections and Juvenile Justice Committee for years, which is the committee I appear in the most. Rep. Jennings died on October 27th, and it is hitting me hard. He was approachable, up front, kind, reasonable, great at finding solutions that people could agree on, and an all-around good human. Rep. Jennings worked as a sheriff, a magistrate judge, and the head of the Juvenile Justice Authority. He was a proponent of juvenile justice reform. He is also the reason we have the current Criminal Justice Reform Commission, and the Kansas Judicial Council Advisory Committee on Sex Offenses and Registration. He spent over 2 years on that advisory committee and then championed bills in 2020 and 2021 dealing with offender registration. The day before he died, I spoke to the Joint Committee on Corrections and Juvenile Justice Oversight about registration — one of his last legislative acts was putting together the agenda for that hearing. His death is a blow to criminal legal system reform (and to those who knew him), but I am hopeful that people will continue the work he started.
Senator Ethan Corson. Sen. Corson, an attorney from Johnson County, took office on January 11th. Ten days later, Carl Folsom (a former state public defender and current federal public defender) was in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee for the second time as Governor Kelly’s nominee for a juridical vacancy on the Court of Appeals. Sen. Corson highlighted and quoted some of Carl’s high-profile supporters; asked Carl questions about his extensive experience; and pointed out that the Court of Appeals’ docket is 75% criminal cases, but no one had expressed concern about another nominee’s lack of experience with criminal law.
On the floor of the Senate, Sen. Corson advocated for Carl’s confirmation. (As I wrote to Sen. Corson in an email, “you said all of the things that we were yelling at our computers” as we listened to the floor debate). On the speedy trial bill (SB 57, ending up in HB 2078), Sen. Corson pushed for the suspension to go until May 1, 2023, rather than 2024. He also spoke out against a full repeal of the statutory speedy-trial provision. In June, he shared his time and insight with us at our BIDS CLE session “Getting Things Done in the Kansas Legislature.”
The family of Olin “Pete” Coons. Based in large part on the testimony of a jailhouse informant, a Wyandotte County jury convicted Mr. Coons of two counts of murder. He spent 12 years in prison before his convictions were vacated, and died 108 days after his release. Not even a month later, Mr. Coons’ children — Melody Bitzer, Quinn Coones, and Ben Coones — appeared in front of the House Judiciary Committee and urged the Legislature to pass HB 2366, which would require prosecutors to disclose their intent to introduce testimony from a jailhouse witness (accompanied by specific discovery) and which would establish a KBI database about jailhouse witnesses. Melody wrote in her testimony, “I hope our story can lead to change. Change that is very much needed in order to prevent this sort of tragedy from striking any other family.” Quinn, who was only 7 when his father was arrested, wrote, “There are many things I wish to do in his honor and the most important I believe is carrying on his legacy . . . and that is why I believe that HB 2366 is important.” HB 2366 passed the House 123-0, but the Senate Judiciary Committee did not act on it. It is still alive and could be considered next session.
Senator Oletha Faust-Goudeau. A member of the Senate since 2009, Sen. Faust-Goudeau represents Wichita, where she is a community activist. She has spent years working with individuals, organizations, and legislators to improve the laws relating to suspended driver’s licenses. (In 2019, there were over 213,000 suspensions associated with traffic tickets, a large number of which were from Wichita and Sedgwick County.) This year, Sen. Faust-Goudeau led the charge to get further improvements (SB 100, ending up in SB 127). As her website explains, “The bill addresses the revolving-door problem of people who, for lack of resources, are unable to pay their traffic fines on time, and — as a result — their licenses are suspended. This keeps them from getting to work, to earn the money, to pay their fines — essentially trapping them forever, unable to drive, unable to get to work, and plummeting deeper into hardship, and hopelessness.” A broad coalition of people — 21 individuals and organizations — testified in favor of the changes, and the bill had overwhelming, bipartisan support. SB 127 expands the number of people eligible for the restricted license; waives the $25 application fee; allows individuals to petition the court to waive or reduce fines and fees; and it eliminates the additional 90-day waiting period for reinstatement if suspension was for failure to comply with a traffic citation.
Kris Kobach. I may disagree with him on a lot of things, but this year he advocated for changes that will help our clients. House Bill 2058 (which started out as SB 190) restores Second Amendment rights upon expungement or pardon ; limits the lifetime ban on possession of a firearm to people convicted of certain offenses where the court finds that a firearm was used in a crime (not just possessed, as the prior law provided); significantly amends statutes on criminal use of weapons and criminal possession of a weapon by a convicted felon; and significantly shortens some prohibition periods on gun ownership.
Each of these people taught me lessons this past session—about coalition building, about speaking truth to power, about how sometimes your opponents on one issue can be allies on another, and about using your power to create meaningful change.