A Franklin county man will have his case hear by the Kansas supreme court on Monday. In august of 2013, the district court sentenced ward to a departure sentence of 12 months’ probation with an underlying prison sentence of 14 months for criminal threat and two counts of assault. Ward had a complicated probation revocation and additional convictions history over the next several years. In 2016, ward filed a motion to correct an illegal sentence and. Ward alleged his counsel was ineffective for multiple reasons, which caused his probation extension. After a brief district court hearing, the court summarily dismissed ward’s claims without an evidentiary hearing. Ward appealed, and the court of appeals issued a show cause order for dismissal of the appeal as moot because ward already had completed any sentence in the case. The court will review two issues. First whether the court of appeals properly found ward’s appeal was moot under dickey and montgomery and second if ward received ineffective assistance of counsel.
