SYG - KS District 22

Mike Spies filed this request with the District Attorney, 22nd Judicial District of Kansas.
Submitted May 1, 2017
Status
Rejected

From: Mike Spies

Subject: None

Fax

To Whom It May Concern:

Pursuant to the Kansas Open Records Act (K.S.A. 45-215), I hereby request the following records:

All Stand Your Ground motions that have been filed by defendants in judicial district 22 since January 1, 2006.

The requested documents will be made available to the general public, and this request is not being made for commercial purposes.

In the event that there are fees, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.

Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 3 business days, as the statute requires.

Sincerely,

Mike Spies

From: Muckrock Staff

Subject: RE: The Kansas Open Records Act Request: SYG - KS District 22

Fax

To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following request, copied below. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response.
Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.

From: Muckrock Staff

Subject: RE: The Kansas Open Records Act Request: SYG - KS District 22

Email

To Whom It May Concern:

Pursuant to the Kansas Open Records Act (K.S.A. 45-215), I hereby request the following records:

All Stand Your Ground motions that have been filed by defendants in judicial district 22 since January 1, 2006.

The requested documents will be made available to the general public, and this request is not being made for commercial purposes.

In the event that there are fees, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.

Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 3 business days, as the statute requires.

Sincerely,

Mike Spies

From: Muckrock Staff

Subject: RE: The Kansas Open Records Act Request: SYG - KS District 22

Email

To Whom It May Concern:

Pursuant to the Kansas Open Records Act (K.S.A. 45-215), I hereby request the following records:

All Stand Your Ground motions that have been filed by defendants in judicial district 22 since January 1, 2006.

The requested documents will be made available to the general public, and this request is not being made for commercial purposes.

In the event that there are fees, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.

Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 3 business days, as the statute requires.

Sincerely,

Mike Spies

From:

Subject: KORA request for Stand Your Ground motions

Email

Dear Mr. Spies:

This is written in response to your records request to the District Attorney of the 22nd Judicial District. Please be advised that no such office exists in the 22nd Judicial District. In your request, you asked for a list of all cases in which a "Stand Your Ground Motion" had been filed in your case since 2006. As I informed you the last time you requested these motions, your records request must be denied.

Your request is treated as a request for information under the Kansas Open Records Act (KORA), K.S.A. 45-215, et seq. KORA requires disclosure of information that is part of the public record, which is defined to mean any recorded information, regardless of form, characteristics or location, which is made, maintained or kept by or is in the possession of any public agency, or any officer or employee of a public agency, if it relates to their official duties. K.S.A. 45-217(g)(1). KORA does not require release of records that are prohibited or restricted from disclosure under federal law, state statute or rule of the Kansas Supreme Court. K.S.A. 45-221(a)(1).

The district court does not make, maintain or keep a single record containing the information you requested. To the extent this information is available in the public record, providing a response to your request would require gathering of information from various records on individual cases that are maintained and kept by the court. This compiling of information is not permitted under applicable Kansas Supreme Court rules and Administrative Orders.

First, I call your attention to Kansas Supreme Court Rule 196 dealing with public access to district court electronic case records. Two provisions of Rule 196 have particular application to your request. First, Rule 196(d)(1) provides that public access to electronic case records or information contained in electronic records "must be available on a case-by-case basis only[.]" Rule 196(a)(2) defines "Case-by-Case Access" to mean "that each electronic case record is available only individually and that when a search for an individual electronic case record returns multiple results, each result may be viewed only individually." Second, Rule 196(e) provides, "Compiled information and bulk distribution will not be available." In Rule 196(a)(1), "Bulk distribution" is defined as "the distribution of all or a significant subset of the information in court case records in electronic form, as is, and without modification or compilation." Rule 196(a)(3) defines "Compiled information" to be "information that is derived from the selection, aggregation, or reformulation of all or a subset of all the information from more than one individual court case record in electronic form." This means cases must be researched individually. The clerk's office will not compile reports or provide information in bulk.

To the extent that your request seeks information that has not been converted to a digital form in order to be considered an electronic case record, you should refer to Supreme Court Administrative Order 189. "[A] request for all court records of a certain type or a significant subset of such records, as opposed to a request for an individual case record, is a bulk request." Kan.Sup.Ct. AO 189. The Order further states that all bulk requests are denied.

Because the data you request constitutes a request for information in bulk or compiled format and is not an existing record made, maintained, or kept by the district court, your records request is denied.

The Kansas Courts do not track "Stand Your Ground" motions, nor do we have the capability to do so. If you want such information, you will need to research individual cases and find the motions yourself. The Court staff will not conduct the research for you.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.

John T. Houston
Staff Attorney
Office of Judicial Administration
301 SW Tenth Street
Topeka, Kansas 66612
(785) 296-2019 (direct)
(785) 296-2256 (main)
(785) 296-7076 (fax)

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