State v. Blackmon

The opinion of the court was delivered by

Luckert, J.:

When sentencing Alexis E. Blackmon for unintentional second-degree murder, the sentencing court imposed a downward durational departure sentence equivalent to the presumptive sentence for involuntary manslaughter. The sentencing court justified the departure on a finding that the facts of the case do not “rise to the level of the manifest indifference to the value of human life required by the second-degree murder statute,” K.S.A. 21-3402(b). The State appealed, presenting the issue of whether a sentencing judge’s disagreement with the jury…