Justia Kansas Supreme Court Opinion Summaries

Appellant entered a plea of no contest to felony murder, attempted first-degree murder, aggravated robbery, and attempted aggravated robbery. Appellant docketed his appeal from his sentence and then filed a pro se motion to withdraw his plea. Thereafter, Appellant withdrew his motion because his case was pending on appeal. The Supreme Court subsequently vacated the sentence, and the district court resentenced Appellant. That same day, Appellant filed a renewed motion in district court seeking leave to withdraw the no contest plea. The district court denied the motion without an evidentiary hearing. The Supreme Court affirmed, holding (1) a defendant may move to withdraw a guilty plea after a cases is remanded from the appellate courts for resentencing; and (2) the district court did not abuse its discretion in finding that Appellant’s motion failed under either the good-cause or the manifest-injustice standard. View "State v. Fritz" on Justia Law

After a jury trial, Defendant was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for fifty years. The Supreme Court affirmed Defendant’s conviction but vacated his sentence, holding that Kansas’ hard fifty sentencing scheme violates the Sixth Amendment to the federal Constitution as interpreted in Alleyne v. United States and Ring v. Arizona because it permits a judge to find by a preponderance of the evidence the existence of one or more aggravating factors necessary to impose an increased mandatory minimum sentence, rather than requiring a jury to find the existence of the aggravating circumstances beyond a reasonable doubt. Remanded for resentencing.View "State v. Soto" on Justia Law

The State charged Defendant with possession of methamphetamine after law enforcement officers stopped Defendant’s vehicle based on a turn signal violation, searched the vehicle because they detected a very strong odor of alcohol coming from within the vehicle, and discovered methamphetamine during the search. Defendant filed a motion to suppress the fruits of the warrantless search. The district court denied the motion, concluding that the strong odor of alcohol emanating from within the vehicle established probable cause for the officers to search the vehicle for an open container of alcohol. The Supreme Court reversed, holding that the search was unlawful because the officers failed to acquire additional inculpatory facts relating to the crime being investigated before commencing their search of the vehicle.View "State v. Stevenson" on Justia Law

After a jury trial, Defendant was convicted of aggravated kidnapping, aggravated indecent liberties with a child, and criminal threat. The court of appeals affirmed on direct appeal. The Supreme Court accepted review to address Defendant’s claims that the prosecutor committed three separate acts of prosecutorial misconduct during trial. The court of appeals applied the prosecutorial misconduct standard as explained in State v. Tosh in rejecting Defendant’s contentions of prosecutorial misconduct. Before the Supreme Court Defendant argued that this traditional multi-prong test was flawed because it leaves open the possibility the misconduct affected the verdict. The Supreme Court affirmed, holding (1) Defendant’s criticism of the traditional prosecutorial misconduct standard was unwarranted; and (2) the court of appeals correctly found that there was no merit to two of Defendant’s misconduct claims, and the prosecutor’s misconduct in using a jigsaw puzzle analogy during voir dire and closing arguments did not deprive Defendant of a fair trial. View "State v. Crawford" on Justia Law

Chad Taylor received the most votes in the Democratic Party primary for United States Senate for Kansas and was declared the winner. Taylor subsequently drafted a letter of withdrawal from the Senate race and submitted it to Kris Kobach, the Secretary of State. Kobach denied Taylor’s request that his name be withdrawn from nomination for election on the basis that the request did not comply with the requirements for withdrawal under Kan. Stat. Ann. 25-306b(b). Taylor filed a petition for writ of mandamus and emergency motion for temporary restraining order seeking, inter alia, an order directing Kobach to recognize and effectuate Taylor’s letter of withdrawal from the Senate race and prohibiting Kobach from including his name on the ballot race for the 2014 general election. The Supreme Court granted Taylor’s petition for writ of mandamus, holding that the uncontroverted contents of Taylor’s letter to Kobach satisfied the statutory requirements for withdrawal, and therefore, Kobach had no discretion to refuse to remove Taylor’s name from the ballots. View "Taylor v. Kobach" on Justia Law

After the Unified School District No. 365 initiated condemnation proceedings on property owned by Donald and Susan Diebolt, the trial judge appointed three appraisers, who valued the property at $278,800. During the trial, the trial court allowed Donald to express a valuation opinion as to the property but excluded Donald’s testimony regarding the value of the property that was not relevant to the jury’s determination and that was beyond Donald’s expertise. The Diebolts appealed the trial court’s exclusion of the testimony. The Supreme Court affirmed, holding that the trial court did not abuse his discretion in excluding the evidence, where Donald was not qualified to perform a cost appraisal and did not have appraisal expertise.View "Unified Sch. Dist. No. 365 v. Diebolt" on Justia Law

After a jury trial, Defendant was convicted of two counts of aggravated indecent liberties with a child and sentenced to hard twenty-five life sentences imposed under Jessica’s Law. The Supreme Court reversed Defendant’s convictions and remanded the case for a new trial, holding (1) the district court erred in failing to give a unanimity jury instruction; (2) the district court abused its discretion in handling Defendant’s motion for a mistrial based on a law enforcement officer’s violation of an order in limine when the officer volunteered that Defendant invoked his postarrest right to remain silent and described the circumstances of that invocation because Defendant’s constitutional rights were violated by the officer’s testimony; and (3) the cumulative impact of these errors substantially prejudiced Defendant’s right to a fair trial.View "State v. Santos-Vega" on Justia Law

After a jury trial, Defendant was convicted of multiple counts of serious sex offenses perpetrated against his four-year-old granddaughter. The Supreme Court affirmed Defendant’s convictions, holding (1) the State presented sufficient evidence to prove that Defendant penetrated the child victim’s labia with his finger, which would support the sexual intercourse element of rape; and (2) the district court did not err by denying Defendant’s request to have a psychological evaluation performed on the victim, as Defendant failed to establish any valid reason that would support a finding of compelling circumstances to warrant a psychological examination of the sex abuse victim in this case.View "State v. Eddy" on Justia Law

A petition to convene a citizen-initiated grand jury alleged wrongdoing by the officers and directors of the Board of Public Utilities (BPU) of the Unified Government of Wyandotte County/Kansas City, Kansas (Unified Government). The grand jury returned an indictment charging Rodney Turner, an attorney who did consulting and legal work for BPU, with two counts of theft and fifty-five counts of presenting a false claim. Turner moved to dismiss the indictment for grand jury abuse and violation of his constitutional rights. The district court granted the motion. The court of appeals reversed, concluding that Turner did not possess the full panoply of constitutional rights at the investigatory proceedings by the grand jury and that the constitutional violations that did occur during the proceedings did not prejudice him. The Supreme Court reversed the court of appeals and affirmed the district court’s dismissal of the indictment, holding that the record established grave doubt that the decision to indict was free from the substantial influence of abuses of process and constitutional violations caused by the State’s agents during the grand jury proceedings. View "State v. Turner" on Justia Law

After a second jury trial, Defendant was convicted of first-degree murder for the shooting death of the social guest of Defendant’s girlfriend. The Supreme Court affirmed, holding (1) any error in the district court’s admission of and failure to give limiting instructions on evidence of other crimes or civil wrongs was harmless; (2) the district court correctly refused to give an instruction on the lesser included offense of voluntary manslaughter; (3) there was no prosecutorial misconduct arising from references to school shootings during closing argument; and (4) Defendant received a fair trial untainted by cumulative error. View "State v. Story" on Justia Law