Justia Kansas Supreme Court Opinion Summaries

Defendant Brandon Hulett was charged with first-degree murder. Before trial, Hulett filed a pro se motion for substitute counsel. The district court denied the motion, finding no conflict of interest, no irreconcilable conflict, and no complete breakdown between Hulett and counsel. Hulett then pleaded guilty to felony murder. Before sentencing, Hulett filed a motion to set aside his plea that made no mention of any conflict between Hulett and his counsel. The district judge denied the motion. Hulett then appealed the denial of his motion to withdraw his guilty plea, arguing that he was deprived of conflict-free counsel at the hearing on his motion and seeking a reversal and remand for appointment of substitute counsel to represent him at a new hearing on his motion to withdraw. The Supreme Court affirmed, holding there was no error in the district court's failure to address a nonexistent, possible conflict of interest between Hulett and counsel at the time of the hearing on the motion to withdraw plea. View "State v. Hulett" on Justia Law

A jury convicted Michael Tully of one count of rape. The court of appeals affirmed Tully's conviction and sentence. The Supreme Court reversed the court of appeals and district court, holding (1) Tully's rights as protected by Miranda v. Arizona and Doyle v. Ohio were violated by the State's improper comments on Tully's postarrest silence; (2) the district court gave an improper jury instruction on the element of force; (3) the district court abused its discretion in allowing a State's expert witness to offer an opinion beyond her qualifications, which also invaded the province of the jury; and (4) the cumulative errors denied Tully a fair trial. Remanded for a new trial. View "State v. Tully" on Justia Law

Defendant Anthony Barnes was convicted of first-degree premeditated murder and aggravated assault. Barnes was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole with a consecutive fourteen months for the aggravated assault. The Supreme Court affirmed Barnes' convictions and sentences, holding (1) the district judge did not abuse her discretion when she accepted Barnes' jury trial waiver and continued with the trial to the bench despite Barnes' difficulty in choosing between jury and bench trial; (2) the district judge did not err in accepting Barnes' knowing and voluntary waiver of his jury trial right; and (3) there was sufficient evidence to support a finding that Barnes possessed the necessary mental state to commit the crimes. View "State v. Barnes" on Justia Law

Lafayette Cosby was convicted of first-degree premeditated murder after a second trial. The Supreme Court affirmed, (1) The district court properly excluded evidence of a question Cosby asked police because it was inadmissible hearsay; (2) the district judge correctly decided not to include a lesser included offense on voluntary manslaughter in the jury instructions; (3) the evidence of premeditation in this case was plainly sufficient to support Cosby's conviction; and (4) the prosecutor did not engage in reversible conduct or improperly shift the burden of proof on the element of premeditation to the defense with a certain comment to the jury because the prosecutor's challenged comment was within the wide latitude allowed the State in discussing the evidence. View "State v. Cosby" on Justia Law

After a jury trial, Phouthavy Chanthaseng was convicted for aggravated indecent liberties with a child. On appeal, Chanthaseng argued that the prosecutor committed reversible misconduct by arguing facts not in evidence and commenting on the credibility of the victim. The Supreme Court affirmed, holding (1) the prosecutor committed misconduct by discussing the delayed and piecemeal "process of disclosure" of the abuse victim and by using personal experiences of venire panel members as substitute for evidence of disclosure pattern relevant to reliability; (2) the prosecutor did not commit misconduct by referencing the abuse victim's credibility because the prosecutor's comments, when viewed in context, where accompanied by a discussion of the evidence presented at trial and merely asked the jury to draw permissible inferences from that evidence; and (3) the prosecutor's "process of disclosure" misconduct did not constitute plain error requiring reversal of Chanthaseng's conviction. View "State v. Chanthaseng" on Justia Law

Chester Roberts was arrested for the unlawful possession of prescription drugs after he was found in possession of a tablet of generic Lortab, for which he had no prescription. Roberts was charged with one count of possession of hydrocodone in violation of Kan. Stat. Ann. 65-4160(a). Roberts filed a pre-trial motion to dismiss the charge, arguing that section 56-4160(a) does not include hydrocodone combination products such as generic Lortab. The district court granted Roberts' motion. The State appealed the district court's order of dismissal. In response, Roberts argued that the State could not appeal the dismissal because the court's order was equivalent to a judgment of acquittal from which an appeal is barred both by statute and the Double Jeopardy Clause. The Supreme Court held that, under the facts of this case where the order of dismissal was entered before trial, jeopardy had not yet attached, and therefore, the order was not a judgment of acquittal and the State's appeal was not barred by the Double Jeopardy Clause. View "State v. Roberts" on Justia Law

After a jury trial, Jared Race was convicted of two counts of rape, three counts of aggravated criminal sodomy, and four counts of aggravated indecent liberties with a child. The Supreme Court affirmed, holding (1) the district judge did not err by admitting certain testimony about one victim's allegation; (2) there was sufficient evidence to support conviction on the second count of rape of one victim; (3) the district judge did not abuse his discretion in denying Race's motions for mistrial based on one juror's observation of Race in a courthouse hallway while Race was wearing handcuffs, when the juror denied seeing anything remarkable about Race's appearance and had not shared his observation with other jurors; (4) the district judge did not abuse his discretion in denying a defense motion for mistrial when a juror was absent from the jury deliberations room for two minutes and Race did not demonstrate the jury deliberations continued during that time; and (5) error in failing to instruct the jury on the element of Race's age was harmless when Race's testimony confirming his age of eighteen years or older at the time of the offenses was uncontested. View "State v. Race" on Justia Law

In two cases consolidated for trial, a jury convicted Patrick Naputi on seven counts of aggravated indecent liberties with a child under the age of fourteen. The district court granted Naputi's departure motion and imposed a sentence that included 122 months of incarceration, lifetime electronic monitoring, and lifetime postrelease supervision. The Supreme Court affirmed the convictions but vacated the portion of the sentence ordering lifetime electronic monitoring in accordance with State v. Jolly, which states that the parole board has the sole authority to impose the electronic monitoring condition of parole. Remanded with instructions to eliminate the electronic monitoring requirement. View "State v. Naputi" on Justia Law

After a jury trial, Xavier Miller was convicted of intentional second-degree murder. The court of appeals affirmed Miller's conviction. At issue on review was whether the district court clearly erred when it appropriately instructed the jury that it should simultaneously consider the lesser-included offenses of second-degree murder and voluntary manslaughter, but then erroneously gave a contradictory instruction directing the jury to consider the offense of voluntary manslaughter only if it could not agree on the offense of second-degree murder. The Supreme Court reversed Miller's conviction and remanded for a new trial, holding that there was a real possibility the jury would have rendered a different verdict had it not received the inappropriate and contradictory instruction to consider the lesser-included offenses sequentially rather than simultaneously. View "State v. Miller" on Justia Law

While FBI task-force officers were looking to execute an arrest warrant for Shane Thompson, the officers saw Defendant Robert Johnson walking on a sidewalk. After requesting identification, the officers searched Johnson and discovered marijuana and crack cocaine. Johnson was charged with possession of cocaine and possession of marijuana. Johnson filed a motion to suppress, arguing there was a lack of reasonable suspicion to detain him. The district court denied the motion after listening to testimony describing the similarities between Defendant and Thompson. Johnson was convicted of the charges. The court of appeals affirmed. The Supreme Court reversed and vacated Defendant's sentences, holding that Johnson was illegally seized because (1) the State failed to meet its burden to show that it was reasonable for the officers to rely on a face sheet in detaining Defendant; and (2) detaining Defendant because he shared the generic common features with Thompson of being a black male with facial hair was not, without more, sufficient to give officers reasonable suspicion of criminal activity. View "State v. Johnson" on Justia Law