State v. Salas

The opinion of the court was delivered by

Luckert, J.:

Abel Salas raises a veiy narrow issue of whether K.S.A. 21-2512 violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution because it allows postconviction DNA testing of evidence if a defendant is convicted of premeditated first-degree murder but does not allow such testing if the defendant is convicted of intentional second-degree murder. To establish the equal protection violation, Salas argues that the class of individuals who commit first-degree murder is indistinguishable from the class of…