WICHITA, Kan. (AP) – Legal experts say Kansas has lax laws
governing evidence retention.

The Wichita Eagle reported that state law requires a court order
to destroy evidence, but there are no consequences for disobeying
it.

Washburn Law School adjunct professor Rebecca Woodman says
that’s one of the problems with the law.
For the past two years, her students have been studying the case
of Ronnie Rhodes. Evidence in his 30-year-old murder case
apparently was destroyed without a court order.

The 56-year-old says he didn’t stab Cleother Burrell in Wichita
in 1981 and wonders why he can’t seek legal relief.
Destroyed evidence in his cases includes hairs taken from
Burrell’s hands and a knife that prosecutors contended was the
murder weapon.

The Eagle reported that inmates have no one advocating for their
evidence to be maintained.

(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)