Month: September 2015

KCKCC to hold Constitution Day event

Originally published Sept. 11, 2015
by Kelly Rogge

Kansas City Kansas Community College will take a closer look at the recent Supreme Court ruling that marriage equality is a Constitutional right during its annual Constitution Day event.

The Constitution Day Forum will being at 11 a.m. Sept. 17 in Room 2325. Snacks will be provided.

Faculty panelists will present some background on the Constitution, the right to marry and the specifics of the court’s decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, followed by time for questions and discussion.

Presentations will include:

• A general introduction by reference librarian Joseph Grasela.
• An explanation of judicial review by political science professor Jessie Johnson.
• A brief history of how marriage became a constitutional right by Media professor Bryan Whitehead.
• An analysis of the Supreme Court’s decision by business law professor Janet Velazquez.
• Remarks from community member Seth Eckelman, whose life was directly affected by the court’s decision.
• An open discussion facilitated by social science professor Valdenia Winn.

This forum is the college’s official observance of Constitution Day, the annual commemoration of the ratification of the Constitution and celebration of its importance in American society. Created in 2004, Constitution Day replaced what was previously Citizenship Day. Federal law requires that all educational institutions that receive public funds provide some type of education programming on the history of the American Constitution, leading to events such as the one at KCKCC.

Kelly Rogge is the public information supervisor at Kansas City Kansas Community College.

Appeals court upholds Wyandotte County District Court sentence

Originally published Sept. 11, 2015
The Kansas Court of Appeals today upheld a Wyandotte County District Court sentence in a burglary and theft case.

Johnathon Earl White asked the court to change his sentence, 25 years after it was handed down.

White appealed his sentence under the Habitual Criminal Act. Convicted of one count of aggravated robbery and three counts of kidnapping in 1987, White was sentenced under the Habitual Criminal Act as a third-time offender, according to court documents.

White was convicted of felonies in two earlier cases involving burglary and theft.

If the court would not have sentenced him under the Habitual Criminal Act, he would have received a minimum of 5 to 15 years and a maximum of 20 years to life for the aggravated robbery conviction and each of the kidnapping convictions.

The Wyandotte County District Court sentenced White to not less than 45 years to life imprisonment for the aggravated robbery conviction and for each kidnapping conviction, according to court documents. The sentences were to run concurrently with each other, but consecutive to sentences already imposed in earlier cases.

Because the crimes were committed with a firearm, White was not eligible for probation and could not achieve parole until he had served the minimum sentence, less good time credits, according to court documents.

In 2012, White filed his motion to correct the sentence. He alleged the statutes did not give the court the authority to impose the 45-years-to-life sentence.

When the court appointed a lawyer for White, the lawyer argued that the district court erred in sentencing White as a third-time offender because the court had not sentenced him as a second time offender for his second felony conviction in 1983.

Today the Court of Appeals stated that the court did not have to sentence a defendant as a second-time offender before sentencing the defendant as a third-time offender.

“For sentencing under the Act, all that matters is a defendant’s prior felony convictions,” the Court of Appeals stated in today’s decision. “Consequently, White’s sentence as a third-time offender is legal because he had two prior felony convictions.”