The Kansas Court of Appeals has denied the latest appeal in a Lyon County kidnapping, rape and criminal sodomy case dating back nearly 20 years.
The recent ruling follows convictions in 2000 against John L Weeks, who was convicted after allegedly kidnapping three women, taking them to rural areas and raping them on separate occasions in 1999.
Weeks’ most recent appeal was filed last year. He admitted filing motions late but says his innocence excused the late filings. He also claimed ineffective legal counsel and judicial bias from presiding judge Lee Fowler in the original case.
The Court of Appeals panel disagreed, saying Weeks’ appeal was untimely and his innocence claims either were handled or could have been handled as part of his initial appeal. The appellate court also found no “outward sign of bias” in Fowler’s ruling.
Weeks has appealed his conviction and sentencing on several occasions since his original trial. The Court of Appeals initially vacated his original sentence and sent the case back to district court for resentencing, although it affirmed other court actions as appeals continued. Judge Fowler also corrected Weeks’ sentence in 2015 after guidance from the United States Supreme Court.
