Appeal No. 125,113: State of Kansas v. David Moncla
Summary calendar; no archived oral argument
Moncla, who is serving a hard-40 sentence for first-degree murder, appealed the Sedgwick County District Court's denial of his motion to correct an illegal sentence. Moncla argued his sentence was illegal because the district court's irregular procedures had divested it of jurisdiction to impose restitution to the victim's sister-in-law. In a unanimous decision written by Justice K.J. Wall, the Supreme Court found it had already considered and rejected Moncla's claim in an earlier appeal. Because no later development in the law had undermined the Court's earlier decision, the Court held that Moncla’s claim was barred by a legal doctrine called res judiciata, which generally prevents a person from raising a particular claim after a court has ruled on it.
