As Shawnee County District Attorney, what legislation would you advocate to strengthen Kansas criminal statutes?
For more than a decade I have worked with Kansas district and county attorneys and others in law enforcement to make major changes in our criminal code. Our efforts include passage of “Jessica’s law”, increasing the statute of limitations for criminal offenses from two to five years, increasing penalties for those who assault or batter law enforcement officers, eliminating discriminatory residential arson penalties and other important enhancements. Two legislative proposals for future consideration include: 1) Criminals on probation would remain on probation status until paying their victim all restitution originally ordered by the court. (The court could terminate probation supervision but the probationer would remain on “active” probation status.) If the probationer were convicted of another offense and the restitution to the first victim was still unpaid — at sentencing the probationer would receive consecutive sentences for the probation violation and the new offense. 2) Any judic
