Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Public Defense Blogs -> Kansas Defenders

Public Defense

: Kansas Defenders

SCOTUS grants cert petition in Ventris

For those of you who haven't heard, SCOTUS granted the State?s petition for writ of certiorari in State v. Ventris, No. 94,002 (KSC Feb. 1, 2008). The KSC had reversed Mr. Ventris? convictions for aggravated robbery and aggravated burglary because the district court admitted impeachment testimony from a jailhouse informant who had been surreptitiously planted in his jail cell by the State (after Mr. Ventris had been formally charged).

The issue framed by the State to SCOTUS was ?Whether prosecutors may use a defendant?s statement - made in the absence of a knowing and voluntary waiver of the right to counsel - to impeach a witness, as opposed to during its case-in-chief.?

Matt Edge, who won the case in the KSC, will argue the case (probably some time in January). Randall Hodgkinson will be second-chair.

Here is Scotuswiki?s link to the briefs.

Full post as published by Kansas Defenders on October 13, 2008 (boomark / email).