Topeka ? A man sentenced to 15 years in prison for shooting three people in 2008 outside a former Lawrence bar will not have to register as a violent offender for the rest of his life once he is released from prison, according to a ruling Friday by the Kansas Supreme Court.

Carlos Jackson had pleaded guilty in the Feb. 10, 2008, shooting outside Last Call, which had been located at 729 N.H.. He had gotten into a fight, retrieved a gun from his car and then fired several times in the vicinity of the crowd.

He was charged with three counts of aggravated battery and was sentenced to 10 years in prison for the first count and consecutive terms of 32 months for the other two counts.

In addition to Jackson’s prison sentence, Douglas County District Judge Paula Martin ordered him to register with the state for life as a violent offender.

Martin made the determination based on a 1999 case against Jackson when he was a juvenile.

But Jackson appealed that decision, arguing that “juvenile adjudications” are not the same as convictions as an adult and can’t be used to enhance the violent offender registration requirement. In the juvenile case, Jackson pleaded guilty when he was 17 to first-degree murder and attempted aggravated robbery in Shawnee County.

The Kansas Supreme Court agreed with Jackson.

Writing for the court, Justice Eric Rosen said that the statutes approved by the Legislature make a distinction between adult and juvenile prosecutions. He said that because the statutes “did not expressly extend the registration requirement to prosecutions carried out under the extended jurisdiction scheme, we must conclude the registration statute to apply only to convictions arising from adult prosecutions.”

The Supreme Court vacated the lifetime violent offender registration with directions to impose a 10-year registration period for offenders who commit a felony while using a deadly weapon.