What the Judge Ate for Breakfast: State Courts

Home -> Law Blog Directory -> State Courts Blogs

OR PHONE (866) 635-1838 for Bankruptcy Help, (866) 635-6190 for Divorce,
(866) 635-2689 for Personal Injury or (866) 635-9402 for Criminal Defense

Find a Local Lawyer

Bankruptcy (866) 635-1838
Divorce (866) 635-6190
Personal Injury (866) 635-2689
Criminal Defense (866) 635-9402

State Courts

What the Judge Ate for Breakfast

News from inside Wichita's courts.
By Ron Sylvester

Post Frequency: 1.3/day

Last Entry: March 28, 2011 at 22:37:55

Death row exoneree visits Wichita Tuesday

Posted on March 28, 2011
A Florida man who had been condemned to death for a crime he didn’t commit is scheduled to speak Tuesday at Wichita State University. Juan Melendez is set to tell his story at 7 p.m. in Hubbard Hall, room 208. He will also meet with students at 2 p...

Wichita woman works to fight trafficking

Posted on March 24, 2011

Inmates get new way to seek DNA testing

Posted on March 08, 2011
The U.S. Supreme Court gave inmates another way to challenge rulings preventing the testing of evidence that might prove their innocence. In a 6-3 ruling Monday the high court said inmates have to right to sue for civil rights violations in federal court, if they are denied DNA testing on the state level...

Schneiders must release Acapulco account

Posted on February 24, 2011
A former Haysville doctor and his wife must turn over $130,000 being held in an Acapulco bank account, a federal judge ordered today. U.S. Senior District Judge Monti Belot gave Stephen and Linda Schneider 30 days to give government prosecutors access to the funds...

To access this complete feed in the blog feed reader login or register for free.

A lifetime in prison: Part 2

Posted on February 22, 2011
I remembered just how long Ronnie Rhodes has spent in prison, when I prepared to send him the project we’d published on his 30-year-old case. Rhodes doesn’t have access to the Internet from prison, so he’d missed many of the blog posts I’d written over the past year...

A modern view of the oldest profession

Posted on February 17, 2011

DNA requests aren?t tracked, some lost

Posted on February 14, 2011
Ronnie Rhodes is one more than a dozen inmates who have filed motions in Sedgwick County District Court since 2001, when Kansas passed a law allowing judges to order DNA testing in old cases. The Eagle found that prosecutors across the state don?t track such motions, and one case where the request appeared lost for [...

Evidence not fabricated but still tainted, appeals court rules

Posted on January 31, 2011
Although a Sedgwick County prosecutor didn’t make up evidence, the Kansas Court of Appeals ruled he still shouldn’t have used it. The most recent opinion (.pdf) is the second time the court ordered a new trial on whether Robert C. Ontiberos should be put in a mental hospital indefinitely as a sexually violent predator...

Sotomayor fulfills dreams of immigrants

Posted on January 29, 2011
Sonia Sotomayor said she knew just how significantly her life had changed when she attended her family?s holiday celebration this past New Year?s Day, her first since taking her seat on the U.S. Supreme Court. Sotomayor?s Puerto Rican family from the South Bronx, N...

DNA not essential in proving innocence

Posted on January 25, 2011
It doesn’t always take DNA to show a flawed conviction. Thomas Cress is proof of that. Last month, Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm commuted Cress’ conviction for the 1983 murder of a Battle Creek teen. Doubts about Cress’ case surfaced through reports by the Detroit Free Press...

Exonerated death row inmate to visit WSU

Posted on January 24, 2011
Wichita will be able to hear another story of a man who has been wrongly convicted. Juan Melendez, who spent more than 17 years awaiting a death sentence for a crime he didn’t commit, will speak next week at Wichita State University. He’s scheduled to speak twice: 7 p...

Tracking the ghost of an ?eye witness?

Posted on January 18, 2011
Bruce Elliott remains one of most perplexing parts in the murder conviction of Ronnie Rhodes. Elliott, then 40, was the eye-witness who police claimed could identify Rhodes as the killer of Cleother Burrell, but who never really did. Not to the police...

Belot: Schneiders owe victims $115 million

Posted on January 12, 2011
A former Haysville doctor and his wife owe more than $115 million to victims of their “pill mill,” according to a federal judge’s order filed late this afternoon. U.S. District Judge Monti Belot acknowledged in his ruling that Stephen and Linda Schneider will never be able to repay the debt...

After 30 years, Texas conviction overturned

Posted on January 05, 2011
Cornelius Dupree Jr., saw his conviction for rape and robbery overturned Tuesday by a judge in Dallas, Texas. Dupree spent 30 years in prison and had two chances to walk free. But he was denied parole because he wouldn’t own up to his crimes and undergo treatment as a sex offender...

Key evidence remains mystery in 1981 case

Posted on December 27, 2010
After months of reviewing reports and documents, questions still remain about a 1981 stabbing death in Wichita that sent a man to prison for a crime he says he didn’t commit. “What we know is there were a lot of problems with this case,” said Rebecca Woodman, adjunct professor at Washburn Law School, whose students have been [...

Head-shaving incident nets serious charges

Posted on December 22, 2010
If you’re considering shaving someone’s head to get back at them, you might want think again. Such an attack has at least four people awaiting trial next month in Sedgwick County District Court, facing some serious charges that could land them in prison for more than a decade...

WBA followup: more useful links for lawyers

Posted on December 16, 2010
Since my talk Tuesday at the Wichita Bar Association, I’ve come across some more links that could prove useful to attorneys wanting to start blogs and use social media in their practices. All came, via Twitter. Geri Dreiling of Legal Media Matters wrote about Four Quick-Start Twitter Tips for lawyers...

In plain English: judges sets interpreter rules

Posted on December 16, 2010
After a snafu with an interpreter in the Wichita case of a Rwandan man, a federal judge set out rules today for making sure it didn’t happen again. U.S. Senior District Judge Monti Belot said he will give lawyers on both sides until Jan. 7 to agree on an interpreter in the case of Lazare Kobagaya...

Links from the WBA luncheon

Posted on December 14, 2010
I had the opportunity to speak at the monthly Wichita Bar Association lunch today. I’m guessing it’s the last of the year and they ran out of speakers. But they wanted me to talk about my experiences using social media in my job covering courts and how attorneys and judges can use these sites...

Federal court: lost in translation

Posted on December 14, 2010
Here’s something that doesn’t happen everyday: a hearing at the federal courthouse in Wichita was continued this morning because the translator spoke the wrong African language and couldn’t communicate with the defendant. Then again, the case of Lazare Kobagaya is anything but typical...

The makings of a false confession

Posted on December 03, 2010
Eddie Lowery visited Washburn Law School this week to teach students about wrongful convictions through personal experience. In 1981, Lowery confessed to a rape he didn’t commit. DNA evidence eventually exonerated Lowery in 2003 with the help of the Innocence Project...

Kudos continue for Judge Brown

Posted on December 01, 2010
U.S. Senior District Judge Wesley Brown continues to get national recognition for showing up work every day. After all, he is 103 years old and still hears a full docket at the federal courthouse in Wichita. This week, Slate named Brown to its 80 Over 80 list...

Efforts target wrongful convictions in Missouri, Florida

Posted on November 23, 2010
Dale Helmig spent 17 years proclaiming his innocence from a Missouri prison. This month, a judge agreed with him and overturned his conviction in the murder of his mother. This week, a panel appointed by the Florida Supreme Court began studying cases of men in that state who have been proven innocent through DNA testing...

A lifetime in prison

Posted on November 11, 2010
Ronnie Rhodes describes life in prison for the past 30 years. Rhodes says he didn’t commit the murder that landed him in Lansing. Last in a three-part series of excerpts from a telephone interview with Rhodes. See Part 1 and Part 2. Previous posts in this series.

?I?ve done 30 years for a crime I didn?t commit?

Posted on November 10, 2010
Ronnie Rhodes gives his account of what happened the night of Feb. 2, 1981, when Cleother Burrell was killed. This is the second of three parts in our telephone interview with Rhodes from Lansing Correctional Facility. View Part 1. See previous posts in this series.

?Nobody asking any questions about my life?

Posted on November 09, 2010
Ronnie Rhodes tells how he got himself put in an isolation cell to pass a message to me on the outside. Part 1 of a three-part series of excerpts from a telephone interview with Rhodes at the Lansing Correctional Facility, where he’s spent 30 years for a murder he says he didn’t commit...

Eagle reporter prevails under new shield law

Posted on October 26, 2010
In what is likely the first test of a new state shield law for reporters, a Sedgwick County district judge ruled today The Wichita Eagle does not have to reveal confidential sources sought in a lawsuit. Judge William Woolley said Kansas’ new shield law prohibits journalists from being compelled to provide unpublished information that could be [...

Washburn students analyze the Rhodes case

Posted on October 19, 2010
TOPEKA — A month after Cleother Burrell turned up dead of 20 stab wounds in the hallway of an apartment building at 630 N. Topeka, the owner of a nearby bar called police saying he found a knife on his roof. Nearly a foot long, the knife became the centerpiece of the murder trial [...

Inmate No. 34538 has visitors at Lansing

Posted on October 12, 2010
Before Saturday, Ronald Rhodes hadn’t been summoned from his prison cell to see a visitor since 1984. That was three years after he was convicted of murder in Wichita. For 30 years, Rhodes has insisted he didn’t kill anyone. But no one outside the walls could hear him...

My lunch with Wichita women attorneys

Posted on October 08, 2010
The Wichita Women Attorneys Association asked me to come to lunch today and talk about social media, how I use it and how they might be able to use it in their law practices. For those who want to revisit the sites we talked about, and those who couldn’t join us, here are links we discussed: Twitter: [...

Related Law Bulletins

Maryland Judge Reduces Lawsuit Damages that Westboro Baptist Church Must Pay for Protesting Fallen Soldier's Funeral
A federal Judge in Maryland reduced the amount of damages that Wes...

Essex County Judge removes two properties from Maplewood redevelopment area
Yesterday Essex County Superior Court Judge Donald Goldman v...

District Judge Upholds Texas' Moment of Silence Law
In 2003, the Texas legislature amended a "moment of silence" law s...

Judge: Man Can’t Be Forced To Divulge Encryption Passphrase
Encryption password found to be protected under the Fifth Amendmen...

Judge Blocks U.S. Illegal Worker Crackdown
ABC News is reporting that a federal judge today blocked enforceme...