In re Wrongful Conviction of Sims
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In a dispute originating from a domestic incident in 2016, Michael David Sims was convicted by a jury of multiple crimes, including felony interference with law enforcement. Sims appealed this conviction arguing that the evidence was insufficient to support it. Both Sims and the State recommended that the Court of Appeals reverse the conviction, vacate the sentence, and remand the case for resentencing on a lesser misdemeanor interference offense. The Court of Appeals agreed and the lower court resentenced Sims and ordered the misdemeanor conviction to run concurrently with all other counts, declaring Sims' time served to be sufficient to satisfy his sentence.
Subsequently, Sims filed a wrongful conviction lawsuit, alleging he spent nearly a year in prison due to the invalid felony conviction. The State argued that Sims couldn't prove his interference charge was dismissed nor was he found not guilty on retrial, as required by K.S.A. 2022 Supp. 60-5004(c)(1)(B). The district court sided with the State and denied Sims' claim, ruling that the interference charge wasn't dismissed as envisioned by the statute.
The Supreme Court of the state of Kansas affirmed this decision. It held that although Sims' felony conviction was reversed, the interference charge was never dismissed, as the case was remanded and Sims was convicted of misdemeanor interference. The Court concluded that Sims failed to prove that his charges were dismissed or that he was found not guilty on retrial, as required by the wrongful conviction statute. Thus, Sims' claim for wrongful conviction was dismissed.
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