The Kansas Supreme Court has refused to hear an appeal in a child-rape case that the Kansas Court of Appeals in May 2006 ordered to be retried.
Lyon County Attorney Marc Goodman petitioned the state supreme court to overturn the appeals court ruling in the case of Kenneth Waddell, formerly of Americus.
Waddell, 60, was sentenced to 15 years in prison in 2003 after being convicted in Lyon County District Court of rape, aggravated sodomy and aggravated indecent liberties with a child. According to a report published earlier in The Gazette, the trial included videotaped testimony from the 6-year-old girl he was accused of molesting, as well as testimony from Waddell’s daughter, who said that her father had molested her regularly for 11 years.
Carol Green of the office of judicial administration for the state supreme court said Friday afternoon that the petition for review was denied on Oct. 1.
“We issued the mandate on Oct. 2, which means that the case is closed here,” Green said. “That means we sent it back to the district court.”
The Kansas Court of Appeals ordered a retrial of the case saying videotaped testimony by the child, without direct testimony in court, violated Waddell’s constitutional rights. The appeals court also said that the testimony from Waddell’s daughter was prejudicial to his rights.
The appeals court decision was based, in part, on a U.S. Supreme Court decision that cited a constitutional right of a defendant to confront his or her accuser.
According to sentencing guidelines, Waddell could have been sentenced to 662 months for the convictions. However, state law restricted the sentence and capped it at twice the maximum penalty for the count of rape, the earlier report stated.