State v. Looney

The opinion of the court was delivered by

Nuss, C.J.:

This case requires us to determine the appellate courts’ authority to review certain criminal sentences under K.S.A. *90421-4721. The district court denied Tyrone Lee Looneys motion for probation, i.e., for a downward dispositional departure from his presumptive sentence of 169 to 187 months’ imprisonment. Instead, the court granted a downward durational departure to 72 months in prison. When Looney appealed the denial of probation, the Court of Appeals summarily dismissed for lack of jurisdiction.

We conclude the Court of Appeals erred; it had…