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Recent cert petition

Here is a cert petition I am filing today from the decision in State v. Pressley, No. 98,823 (March 10, 2010), where the KSC held that the protection of the Sixth Amendment Speedy Trial Clause does not extend to sentencing. This is an issue on which there is a pretty big split of authority with no direct and controlling SCOTUS precedent, so it makes a pretty good cert petition.

Practitioners, remember that if you have delays in sentencing, especially delays that cause identifiable prejudice, consider both Fifth and Sixth Amendment Speedy Trial claims. And also consider a statutory claim under K.S.A. 22-3424(c), which requires that sentencing occur without unreasonable delay. The KSC would not get to the statutory argument in this case, but if it was properly raised in the district court, it might be a different story.

Full post as published by Kansas Defenders on June 02, 2010 (boomark / email).