State v. Rice

The opinion of the court was delivered by

Larson, J.:

This case involves Jerry D. Rice’s conviction of the September 14, 1992, first-degree murder of his wife, Dorlinda “Lindy” Stakely-Rice, in which a sentence of life imprisonment with no chance of parole for 40 years was imposed. After appeal to this court, we remanded for a hearing to consider the merits of Rice’s claim of ineffective assistance of counsel. The trial court found that although Rice’s Missouri-licensed trial counsel labored under an incorrect understanding of Kansas law which caused Rice to decide not to testify, nevertheless…