The American Bar Association has completed its listing of
the collateral consequences of a criminal conviction for the state of
Kentucky. A few years ago, the United
States Congress directed the National Institute of Justice to collect and study
the collateral consequences of criminal convictions in all jurisdictions
throughout the United States. The
National Institute of Justice selected the American Bar Association Criminal
Justice Section to perform the necessary research and analysis. The result is the ABA National Inventory of
Collateral Consequences of Conviction (NICCC).
It can be accessed at: http://www.abacollateralconsequences.org/ After agreeing to terms and conditions, one
can enter the site and click on the state.
According to the “resources” page on the website, the ABA’s
information on Kentucky was taken, in part, from two law review articles on
collateral consequences in Kentucky published in the Northern Kentucky Law
Review in 2008. These articles were also
the starting point for the Kentucky Department of Public Advocacy’s (DPA)
Collateral Consequences Manual. DPA had
researchers counter-check and update the 2008 information for the publication
of its manual in 2013. It is available
at www.dpa.ky.gov. The manual also includes a thorough chart of
immigration consequences of conviction in Kentucky which was put together by
experts in immigration law. In addition
to the two law review articles on Kentucky law, the ABA also conducted its own
searches using complex algorithms designed to turn up collateral consequences
in state statutes and administrative regulations. The result is comprehensive and
thorough.
When you click on Kentucky on the national map page, the
site allows you to conduct searches in a number of ways. One can select the collateral consequence of
concern and then select the offenses which activate the selected
consequence. Or one can search by
keywords. The website admits that many
collateral consequences may serve a protective function: keeping guns out of
the hands of violent offenders or protecting the young or elderly against
people with a history of abuse. But the
ABA also points out that many collateral consequences “apply across the board
to people convicted of crimes, without regard to any relationship between crime
and consequence, and frequently without consideration of how long ago the crime
occurred or what the individual has managed to accomplish since.”
The website, like the DPA manual, is a valuable starting
point for attorneys concerned about adequately informing their clients of the
consequences of convictions. Specific
questions from clients will always have to be researched independently.
Contributed by Glenn McClister
