State v. Harris, 269 P.3d 820

Harris was convicted of first-degree murder, attempted second-degree murder, and criminal possession of a firearm for shootings in a parking lot during a drug transaction; Sloan died, Overton survived with life-threatening injuries.
Police questioned Harris after arresting him on an outstanding warrant; he gave a recorded interview and later testified inconsistently at trial.
The State introduced Harris’ recorded confession, claiming imperfect self-defense; Harris testified he lied to police during the interview.
Overton identified Harris from a pretrial photo lineup; Sullivan testified Harris and he were not at the scene.
The jury convicted Harris and, at sentencing, Harris received a hard 50 life sentence for murder with additional sentences for the other offenses; aggravating factors and Harris’ juvenile history were not submitted to a jury.
Harris appeals on multiple issues, including instructional errors, suppression rulings, identification admissibility, mistrial denial, the hard 50 scheme, and use of juvenile adjudications in sentencing.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Voluntary manslaughter instruction warranted	Harris argues imperfect self-defense supports voluntary manslaughter for Sloan	Court should apply recanted statements to support instruction	No error; insufficient evidence of honest and unreasonable belief for Sloan
Attempted voluntary manslaughter instruction warranted	Recordings show facts supporting attempted voluntary manslaughter	No record evidence of a requested or viable theory	No error; instruction unnecessary given trial evidence and credibility issues
Denial of suppression of statements	Statements were involuntary due to intoxication, coercion, or improper custody	Totality of circumstances supported voluntariness	Statements were voluntary; district court did not err in denial of suppression
Hard 50 aggravating factors not submitted to jury	Aggravating factors must be proven to a jury beyond a reasonable doubt	Conley and related cases authorize non-jury aggravating-factors in hard 50	Affirmed; hard 50 scheme upheld despite Sixth/Fourteenth Amendment challenges
Use of juvenile adjudications in sentencing	Juvenile history must be charged and proven to a jury	Pre-L.M. decisions permit use in criminal history without jury verdict	Affirmed; prior juvenile convictions properly used in criminal history under existing law

State v. Tahah, 293 Kan. 267 (2011) (recanted confessions can support lesser-included offenses in some contexts)
State v. Nelson, 291 Kan. 475 (2010) (imperfect self-defense requires honest but unreasonable belief; not a defense to liability)
State v. McMullen, 290 Kan. 1 (2009) (voluntariness factors for confessions; long-standing rule on voluntariness)
State v. Ward, 292 Kan. 541 (2011) (abuse-of-discretion framework for mistrial and prejudicial error)
State v. Conley, 270 Kan. 18 (2000) (hard 50 sentencing scheme upholding non-jury aggravators)