A man convicted twice for the same crimes was denied his appeal Friday by the Kansas Supreme Court.
The court ruled Friday that John Prine’s conviction and sentence in a child sex case is upheld.
Prine managed to get a new trial in his child sex case after the courts ruled the District Court erred when they allowed prior bad acts into his trial.
On July 15, 2004, John Prine was convicted of rape, aggravated criminal sodomy and sggravated indecent liberties with a child by a Reno County Jury. The victim was a 6-year-old girl whom he frequently babysat.
Prine was sentenced by now-retired Reno County District Court Judge Richard Rome to serve a term of 387 months in prison and an additional four years in jail for contempt of court due to his behavior at sentencing.
Prine appealed the convictions to the Kansas Court of Appeals. He claimed evidence that he had previously sexually abused two other children was improperly admitted at his jury trial. Reno County District Attorney Keith Schroeder had relied on a statute, K.S.A. 60-455, to admit evidence of the prior molestations.
On December 1, 2006, in an unpublished opinion, the Kansas Court of Appeals ruled that the evidence of the prior sex crimes against children was properly admitted at Prine’s jury trial and upheld his convictions.
The Kansas Supreme Court granted John Prine’s Petition for Review and oral arguments were made in Topeka on October 25, 2007. On January 16, 2009, the Kansas Supreme Court reversed John Prine’s convictions holding that the K.S.A. 60-455 other sex abuse crimes evidence was erroneously admitted at his trial 4 ½ years earlier.
This ruling led former Senator and now-Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt, Senator Terry Bruce, Former House Representative Raj Goyle, Former House Representative and Current Senator Jeff King, to draft Senate Bill 44. The Senate Bill amended K.S.A. 60-455 to permit evidence of prior sex crimes to be admitted at the trial of someone charged with committing a sex crime against a child.
In April of 2009, Senate Bill 44 was unanimously adopted by the House of Representatives and the Senate. Former Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius signed the law into effect. Since a final Mandate had not been issued by the Kansas Supreme Court, Reno County District Attorney Keith Schroeder filed a Motion for Rehearing based on the Legislature’s actions in response to this case. He hoped the reversal of the Defendant’s convictions, in light of the amendments made to K.S.A. 60-455, would be re-examined and spare the victim from having to testify in a second trial. The Motion for Rehearing was denied.
More than five years after the first jury trial, a second jury trial began on August 25, 2009. Once more, retired Reno County District Court Judge Richard Rome presided over the case. Reno County District Attorney Keith Schroeder was again the prosecutor. John Prine was represented by Chief Public Defender Sarah McKinnon.
Judge Rome ostensibly applied the newly amended statute to admit the same evidence of prior sexual molestations at John Prine’s retrial. After less than two hours of deliberations, the Jury returned a verdict finding John Prine guilty of the same crimes. Judge Rome again sentenced Prine to 387 months in prison or roughly 33-years.
John Prine appealed his second conviction to the Kansas Court of Appeals. The case was transferred to the Kansas Supreme Court on its own motion. Oral arguments were presented on August 29, 2012.
Friday, the Kansas Supreme Court released an opinion upholding John Prine’s convictions. In its decision, the Court held that application of the newly amended statute to crimes that occurred before the amendment did not violate the constitutional prohibition on ex post facto laws.
Under the new law, the Court recognized that evidence of prior sex crimes committed by a defendant may be admissible at a trial to prove the propensity of a criminal defendant to commit the charged crime or crimes for sex crime prosecutions.
This holding is widely considered to be a landmark decision by the Kansas Supreme Court. It will have a wide and immediate impact on child sex crime prosecutions in the State of Kansas, and is a major victory for those who advocate for children who have been sexually abused.