Kansas

Lawyer appears in Thomas Jefferson garb to defend law license, unusual capital murder defense

A lawyer wearing a Thomas Jefferson getup appeared before the Kansas Supreme Court on Friday in a quest to retain his law license. Lawyer Ira Dennis Hawver wore a powdered wig, 18th century suit and long white stockings as he argued that the First Amendment protected his unusual defense of…

Sep 15, 2014 7:21 AM CDT

Lawyer who dropped out of US Senate race sues to get his name removed from ballot

Corrected: Commonly, when a lawsuit is filed to get a candidate’s name off an election ballot, it’s filed by an opponent in the race. But it’s former U.S. Senate candidate Chad Taylor himself who’s filed a petition with the Kansas state supreme court seeking to remove his name from the…

Sep 9, 2014 5:45 PM CDT

Does national voter form have to include states’ citizenship requirement? 10th Circuit to decide

Do national voter registration forms have to include proof of citizenship requirements imposed by Arizona and Kansas? That’s the issue that will be argued on Monday before the Denver-based 10th U.S. Circuit Court of appeals. The New York Times, the Wichita Eagle and the Associated Press have stories on the…

Aug 25, 2014 2:21 PM CDT

DA claims felony-murder defendant got high as forgotten baby died in hot car, but OKs reduced bond

Originally held in lieu of bond ranging from $100,000 to $250,000 in a felony murder case over the death of a young foster daughter who died after apparently being forgotten in the car, a Kansas man was released on Saturday after the terms of his bond were changed to require…

Aug 4, 2014 3:15 PM CDT

Lawyer not required to report colleague’s mental lapses absent ethics violation, ethics opinion says

Lawyers aren’t required to report another lawyer’s cognitive decline unless it is tied to an ethics violation, according to a Kansas ethics opinion. The opinion by the Kansas Bar Association’s ethics committee considered the need to report a law firm partner who left the firm, but continued to practice despite…

Aug 4, 2014 10:45 AM CDT

Foster dad charged with felony murder in baby’s accidental hot-car death; could get life sentence

A foster father in Kansas is facing a felony murder case after his 10-month-old foster daughter died when he forgot to take her out of the car after arriving at their Wichita home, reports the Wichita Eagle. The girl was in the car in the 90-degree day for up to…

Jul 31, 2014 6:51 PM CDT

Man gets 21 years for courtroom attack on district attorney

Convicted in June of attempted first-degree murder for a courtroom attack last year on a Kansas district attorney during a sentencing hearing, a 27-year-old Hutchinson man was sentenced Monday to more than 21 years in prison. The new term will run consecutive to the more than 12-year term to which…

Jul 28, 2014 9:40 PM CDT

Kansas can’t opt out of federal gun laws, Brady Center suit says

The Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence is challenging a Kansas law dubbed the Second Amendment Protection Act. The Kansas law says guns made and possessed in the state are exempt from federal gun regulations. The Brady Center claimed in a suit filed on Wednesday that the law violates the…

Jul 10, 2014 12:57 PM CDT

Town shuts down boy’s ‘little free library’ for alleged detached structure violation

A 9-year-old Kansas boy and his family have moved their “little free library” after their town said it violated city code banning detached structures in the front yards of single-family homes. Spencer Collins and his parents moved the library to the garage after the town of Leawood warned in a…

Jun 20, 2014 1:44 PM CDT

Lawyer explains why he argued murder client wouldn’t have left witness alive: It was client’s idea

Kansas lawyer Dennis Hawver has an explanation for this trial argument on behalf of a double murder suspect: If the defendant had killed two women, he wouldn’t have left a third person alive to testify against him. The real gunman shot the witness eight times, Hawver argued, to persuade her…

May 15, 2014 12:46 PM CDT

Murder defendant seeks to have ‘murder’ neck tattoo removed before trial

A Kansas man awaiting trial next week on a first-degree murder charge would rather the jury not see the giant mirror-image “MURDER” tattoo he is sporting around his neck. Jeffrey Wade Chapman, who is charged with the 2011 murder of a man whose body was found by hunters, contends in…

Apr 23, 2014 8:45 PM CDT

Defense stunned by $2.88M verdict in med-mal case over injection injury and suicide

Dr. Kimber Eubanks says the injection-site injury that Joel Burnette at first complained of, according to family and friends, wasn’t reflected in medical records and hence didn’t exist. But a Kansas jury apparently saw the situation differently, awarding his parents $2.88 million over what became a paralyzing injury that they…

Apr 7, 2014 5:45 PM CDT

Westboro leader Fred Phelps Sr. dies; his church’s funeral protests changed federal law

Fred Phelps Sr., who tested the boundaries of free speech as the founding pastor of the Westboro Baptist Church, known for its picketing of military funerals and opposition to homosexuality, has died of natural causes. He was 84 years old. Phelps and other church members publicly blamed tolerance of homosexuals…

Mar 20, 2014 7:09 PM CDT

Facial recognition database leads feds to fugitive 37 years after prison escape

A man who escaped from federal prison in Kansas in 1977 while serving a 23-year sentence for a premeditated murder and aggravated assault committed while he was a U.S. Army private was arrested in Florida on Thursday. James Robert Jones was tracked down, nearly 37 years later, after the Army…

Mar 14, 2014 4:45 PM CDT

Attorney can testify in ineffective assistance case even if there’s no client waiver, judge rules

A criminal defense lawyer can testify in his former client’s appeal asserting ineffective assistance of counsel, even if the ex-client hasn’t waived attorney-client privilege, a Kansas judge ruled Under Kansas law, explained Shawnee County District Court Judge Nancy Parrish, no privilege applies in an ineffective assistance case, the Topeka Capital-Journal…

Feb 18, 2014 11:55 PM CST