Kansas Case Granted Cert by SCOTUS

In today's Order List from the US Supreme Court, one Kansas case made the cut:

07-1356 KANSAS V. VENTRIS, DONNIE R.
The motion of respondent for leave to proceed in forma pauperis is granted. The petition for a writ of certiorari is granted.

Under reviw is the Kansas Supreme Court in State v. Ventris, which held in favor of Mr Ventris that once a criminal prosecution has commenced, a defendant's statements made to an undercover informant surreptitiously acting as an agent for the State are not admissible at trial for any reason, including the impeachment of the defendant's testimony, and that admission of these statements violates the defendant's Sixth Amendment rights.

The cert question proffered by the state is predicated on the impeachment angle -- "Whether a criminal defendant’s 'voluntary statement obtained in the absence of a knowing and voluntary waiver of the [Sixth Amendment] right to counsel," Michigan v. Harvey, 494 U.S. 344, 354
(1990), is admissible for impeachment purposes--a question the Court expressly left open in Harvey and which has resulted in a deep and enduring split of authority in the Circuits and state courts of last resort?"

Mr Ventris won at the state court level with Matthew Edge of the Kansas Appellate Defender's Office representing him, and Matthew and Randall Hodgkinson on the cert brief. Here is the ScotusBlog link to the briefs.
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