Legal Question in Criminal Law in Kansas

Re: Drive-by Shooting cases

The approach you take is in many ways dictated by the specific crime the defendant is accused of. Is it Murder, Manslaughter, reckless homicide, etc?

You might also look at the big picture of what the defendant was doing, especially if the vehicle was parked unoccupied, and this wasn't a "drive-by." Perhaps the discharging of the firearm in that area was inherently dangerous. Jurisdictions vary wildly on this. In Texas, people have been found to not be acting recklessly when they were shooting randomly in a public park, and killed someone, and therefore intent did not transfer. In other jurisdictions you are almost always held to be acting recklessly when shooting a gun anywhere but in an enclosed gun range.

Look at waht is charged. Examine and parse the sttute (if any) and let that tell you the approach you take.

Good Luck

Re: Drive-by Shooting cases

The defense will be lack of intent--that the shooter did not intend to kill anyone. You counter with "transferred intent", which is the idea that he intended the drive-by, and that intent transfers to the homicide. Go to the Law Library in the Johnson County Courthouse in Olathe and ask the librarian to direct you to American Jurisprudence, which is a legal encyclopedia. Look up transferred intent in the index and read about it. Another encyclopedia is Corpus Juris Secundum. Also look at the Kansas Statutes 21-3401, 02, 03 and 04. These are the murder and manslaughter statutes. Also, look at 21-3201, which is about intent. Good luck.

Brian Leininger