Kansas Senate won't budge on criminal-defamation law

By The Associated Press

02.19.03

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TOPEKA, Kan. — Efforts to repeal or weaken Kansas’ criminal-defamation law have failed in the Senate, and the sponsor said he would not pursue the issue further this year.

Kansas is one of few states in which people can be charged with the crime of knowingly spreading false information about someone. The misdemeanor carries a maximum sentence of a year in jail and $2,500 fine.

Interest in abolishing the statute was spurred by last year’s convictions of two Wyandotte County men who put out a free, occasional tabloid. They were prosecuted for falsely reporting that a Wyandotte County mayor and her husband, a judge, actually live in another county in violation of state law.

Critics contend the statute allows officials to attack free speech, and Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline last week said he would favor its repeal.

But a bill (SB 3) by Sen. Derek Schmidt to abolish the law lacks enough support to get out of the Senate Judiciary Committee, so Schmidt tried yesterday to attach it to an unrelated crime bill being considered in the full Senate.

During lengthy debate, supporters of the criminal-defamation law reiterated the main defense of it — that it offers legal recourse for people who believe they have been libeled but cannot afford to file civil lawsuits for libel.

Schmidt withdrew his measure when it appeared certain to fail and offered a separate amendment prohibiting prosecution if the person allegedly defamed were a public official. That amendment failed on a voice vote.

“It’s dead,” Schmidt, R-Independence, said afterward. “It’s clear the Senate is not interested in changing the law, so that’s the end of the story, at least in the Legislature.”

The convictions in the Wyandotte County case were the first in the nation for criminal defamation since 1974.

Publisher David Carson and editor Edward H. Powers Jr. had falsely claimed in their free tabloid The New Observer that Mayor Carol Marinovich, head of the Unified Government of Kansas City, Kan., and Wyandotte County, actually lives in neighboring Johnson County.

The two men, who are both former attorneys, cited unnamed sources for the allegation against Marinovich, a frequent target of their criticism. They are appealing their convictions on seven counts of misdemeanor libel.

In yesterday’s debate, Schmidt said the criminal-defamation law is an archaic statute whose use smacks of the tactics of repressive nations.

“The question is whether government, through the use of criminal law, ought to be in the position of policing the speech of its citizens,” said Schmidt, who is a lawyer and serves on the Judiciary Committee.

But another committee member, Sen. Les Donovan, said that without the threat of criminal prosecution, people with few assets could say whatever they wanted about someone else knowing it was unlikely they would be sued for damages.

“This is not a law on the books that causes damage. This prevents damage,” said Donovan, R-Wichita.

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First Amendment proponents decry verdict; 'We typically associate criminal defamation with authoritarian governments,' says Reporters Committee chief.  07.18.02