Defense Attorney Says Phill Kline Has Screwed Up Edwin Hall Case

By NADIA PFLAUM

Johnson County District Attorney Phill Kline might have lost his opportunity to stick Edwin Hall with the death penalty if Hall is found guilty of Kelsey Smith’s slaying.

During a hearing today in front of Johnson County District Court Judge Peter Ruddick, Hall’s defense attorney, Paul Cramm, contended that Kline has screwed up his petition for the death penalty so badly that the entire document is defective. Kline misstated case law in his petition and failed to sign the document with the proper signature block.

These errors were egregious enough to warrant that the death penalty be dropped as a potential sentence in the case, according to Cramm. Instead, life in prison without parole would be the maximum sentence if Hall is convicted. Cramm cited other cases in which judges had thrown out 40 years as the maximum possible sentence based on inaccurate paperwork filed by the prosecution.