He bought a knife at Walmart. Now, he's in York County Prison.

Mark Lawrence went to Walmart to a buy a knife for a do-it-yourself project — he needed to install drywall and cut tiles. His choice helped land him back in York County Prison.

He got a Kershaw Kuro, which is what’s called an assisted opening knife. It flips open when you press down on a knob that protrudes from the blade.

Later, Lawrence, who had been drinking, passed out behind the wheel of his car at South Richland Avenue and West Market Street in York. It was almost 4 a.m.
  
Police charged him with DUI and related offenses. But they saw something in his pocket — that knife he had bought at Walmart. He got slapped with an additional charge: Possession of a prohibited offensive weapon.
 
Lawrence, who had prior convictions for crimes including robbery and delivery of cocaine, said he did not want to risk going to trial. So he took a plea deal for 7 1/2 to 23 months.

“It’s ridiculous,” said Lawrence, 35, of York, in an interview at the York County Prison Work Release Center. “They see it as a weapon. I see it as a work utensil.”

In Pennsylvania, the legal system has not figured that out — yet assisted opening knives are readily available in stores. Depending on how a police officer, prosecutor or judge interprets the law, someone who thought he or she was following the rules could be at risk of criminal prosecution.

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‘Automatic way by switch, push-button, spring mechanism, or otherwise’

Retailers that sell assisted opening knives see the issue as cut-and-dried: They’re legal. 

“We have processes and procedures in place designed to ensure that all sales comply with state and local laws,” said Khim Aday, a spokesman for Walmart. “The law in Pennsylvania allows for the sale of the Kershaw Kuro knife.”

Takashi Hashimoto, in-house legal counsel for Kai USA Ltd., which makes the Kershaw Kuro, said in an email that he believes the knife is legal in Pennsylvania.

The law states that a “dagger, knife, razor or cutting instrument, the blade of which is exposed in an automatic way by switch, push-button, spring mechanism, or otherwise” is illegal. The same goes for any “other implement for the infliction of serious bodily injury which serves no common lawful purpose.” 

Hashimoto provided a copy of the company’s legal analysis. Kershaw’s assisted opening knives, it states, do not open automatically and are “well-known for their use in sporting, fishing, hiking, cutlery, recreational and work-related activities.”

If a person has an item that’s banned — there are exceptions, including for collectors and dramatic performances — it’s a crime. 

Some weapons are specifically identified: Bombs. Grenades. Machine guns. But when it comes to knives, the language is less exact, leaving it up for law enforcement to interpret what’s illegal.

The York Daily Record/Sunday News sent information about the Kershaw Kuro to several DAs in southcentral Pennsylvania and asked whether they would consider it to be a prohibited offensive weapon:                               

• In an email, Lebanon County District Attorney Dave Arnold, who noted that he was unfamiliar with the knife, besides what he saw on YouTube, said it appeared to meet the definition of a prohibited offensive weapon.
• Brett Hambright, a spokesman for the Lancaster County District Attorney’s Office, said assisted opening knives are legal.
• The knife seems to technically fit the definition, but it has a “legitimate lawful purpose,” Dauphin County District Attorney Ed Marsico said. “It was purely just found on somebody, I don’t think I’d charge,” he said.

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‘It’s a statute that’s way too vague and needs to be revisited by the Legislature’

One of the “very significant problems” with knife laws is that there’s the potential for them to be unequally enforced, said Jan Billeb, executive director of the American Knife and Tool Institute, a nonprofit organization based in Cody, Wyoming, which advocates for what it describes as the knife community.

Sometimes, she said, law enforcement does not know these statutes very well and has to rely on the interpretation of the court system.

Jason Ohliger has seen it first-hand.

Ohliger, who’s an attorney in in Milford, Pike County, which is about 75 miles northeast of Allentown, represented a man who was charged after he emptied his pockets to go through security at the Pike County Administration Building. A sheriff’s deputy saw the assisted opening knife and thought it was illegal.

Jurors disagreed. They came back with a not guilty verdict in 15 minutes.

Possession of a prohibited offensive is “way too vague” and needs to be revisited in the Legislature, Ohliger said. Two “reasonable district attorneys,” he said, could look at a knife and come to opposite conclusions.

You can’t always predict what a jury will do, Ohliger said. 

“But you should never have a situation where the law is so vague, you don’t know what it means,” he said.
 
It’s unclear whether the Pennsylvania Superior Court or the Pennsylvania Supreme Court have definitively addressed whether assisted opening knives are prohibited offensive weapons.

In 2016, the Superior Court ruled that a knife with a blade that “goes from a state of full concealment to being fully exposed upon the application of pressure on a lever" places it "squarely within the definition of a prohibited offensive weapon." The decision does not hold precedent, which means that a judge can use the ruling as guidance, but he or she is not bound by it.

Assistant Public Defender Alisa Livaditis represented Lawrence, the man who’s serving 7 1/2 to 23 months in York County Prison for possession of a prohibited offensive weapon and related offenses.

Livaditis said she conducted a “significant amount of research” and did not come across case law involving an assisted opening knife. The intent of the law, she said, appears to be to ban people from having knives that can be easily concealed and then used to stab someone — or that have no other purpose than to cause harm.
 
People might think that since they bought something at a large retailer, they’re OK, Livaditis said. But in fact, she said, they could be opening themselves up to criminal prosecution.

The crime carries a maximum sentence of 2 1/2 to five years. For someone with no criminal record, the sentencing guidelines call for a punishment that ranges from probation to three to six months in jail.
 
Deputy Prosecutor Justin Roberts, who handled the Lawrence case, said buyers should use caution.

“Stores might sell it,” Roberts said. “But just because they sell it doesn’t mean you can carry it in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.”
 
Contact Dylan Segelbaum at 717-771-2102.

Breaking down the plea agreement in the Mark Lawrence case

• Possession of a prohibited offensive weapon: 7 1/2 to 23 months in York County Prison.
• Driving under the influence: Three to six months, $300 fine. (Concurrent).
• False identification to law enforcement: One year of probation, 50 hours of community service. (Consecutive.)
• Driving without a license: $200 fine.
• Aggregate sentence: 7 1/2 to 23 months in York County Prison, one year on probation, 50 hours of community service and $500 in fines.

What are considered ‘prohibited offensive weapons’ in Pa. ?

“Any bomb, grenade, machine gun, sawed-off shotgun with a barrel less than 18 inches, firearm specially made or specially adapted for concealment or silent discharge, any blackjack, sandbag, metal knuckles, dagger, knife, razor or cutting instrument, the blade of which is exposed in an automatic way by switch, push-button, spring mechanism, or otherwise, any stun gun, stun baton, taser or other electronic or electric weapon or other implement for the infliction of serious bodily injury which serves no common lawful purpose.”