Kansas to pay $50K after wrongfully convicting Wichita man for having a folding knife
Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt has agreed to pay a Wichita man $50,000 after he was wrongfully convicted for having a folding knife in his truck during a traffic stop by Wichita police.
Larry L. Lucas said he used the knife as a tool at work. But prosecutors said he was not allowed to have a folding knife under a 2014 law that expanded firearm bans for some felons to include knives. Lucas had been convicted of a non-violent drug felony eight years earlier.
During a traffic stop, Wichita police found Lucas had an outstanding bench warrant. His wife later arrived at the scene and gave police permission to search Lucas’s truck, where the 4-inch-blade knife was found in the driver’s-side door.
Lucas was sentenced to 18 months for felon in possession of a weapon in 2018. He served 447 days in prison before a Kansas Supreme Court decision overturned the 2014 law, finding that the state’s definition of a weapon was so vague that it could result in a felon being arrested for using a butter knife.
The Attorney General’s Office fought against awarding Lucas any money for the wrongful conviction, arguing that Lucas did not have “clean hands” because of 13 prior felony convictions and 22 misdemeanors. His criminal history led to his conviction as a felon in possession of a knife, Schmidt’s office argued.
“But for his own conduct, Claimant (Lucas) could have lawfully possessed a firearm, dagger, dirk, switchblade, stiletto, straight-edged razor, or what he possessed that caused or brought about this conviction — a folding knife,” Schmidt’s office wrote. “Because his own felonious conduct caused or brought about his conviction, Claimant is not entitled to compensation under the Act.”
Lucas’s lawyer, in a written rebuttal, said that line of reasoning missed the point: Lucas could legally possess the folding knife.
“The State may not like the idea of compensating an individual with criminal history such as Mr. Lucas, but that in no way invalidates his claim, or makes the 447 days that Mr. Lucas spent in prison less compensatory.”
Matthew M. Dwyer, Lucas’s lawyer, said the attorney general was arguing “because you have a criminal history, you are not as deserving as a person to be compensated as one who has no criminal history.”
Sedgwick County District Judge Faith Maughan sided with Lucas and granted paying Lucas up to $100,000.
“The Court specifically finds that as a matter of law being a convicted felon is not a crime, and as such only one element of the underlying crime was satisfied.”
The $50,000 settlement was disclosed Tuesday at a meeting of the State Finance Council. Lawyer Dennis Depew said Lucas accepted the lower amount to avoid what could be a costly and lengthy appeal filed by Schmidt’s office with the Kansas Supreme Court.
Lucas is the second man arrested by Wichita police and charged by the Sedgwick County District Attorney’s Office to be exonerated by Kansas Supreme Court decision in the past few years.
Christopher M. Harris was cleared in 2020 after being convicted of criminal possession of a weapon by a convicted felon for having a 3 1/2-inch pocketknife. He had been told by his parole officer that the specific knife he was arrested for possessing was not prohibited because it was under 4 inches.
Katie Bernard of The Kansas City Star contributed.
This story was originally published September 7, 2022 at 12:00 AM.