Wichita State University will celebrate Constitution Day 2014 with a visit by the Kansas Court of Appeals from 9:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 16, at the CAC Theater. A panel of three judges will hear arguments for six cases in a forum open to the public, honoring the Constitutional Convention of Sept. 17, 1787.

The Court of Appeals is Kansas' intermediate court, empowered to review the decisions of lower courts throughout the state. The court normally handles appeals cases in Topeka, but as part of a 2004 congressional mandate for public institutions, the hearings will take place at Wichita State's CAC Theater this year. WSU also hosted the event in 2011 and 2013.

"Students and members of the public will gain a significant understanding of the inner workings of the state's appellate court,” said Ron Matson, interim dean of Wichita State's Fairmount College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. "Observing these activities as they occur surpass traditional classroom lectures or readings on the subject. We are privileged to host the court and look forward to their visit."

All of the cases to be heard at the event are real cases on the court’s docket, and most involve rights protected by the Constitution. The cases will be heard consecutively by the court.

Attorneys for five of the cases will be allowed 15 minutes each to present their arguments. The second case, involving the First National Bank of Hutchinson, is particularly complex, and attorneys will be allowed 20 minutes each for presentations. During the hearings, judges will ask questions of the attorneys, and then allow questions about the judicial process from the audience. They will not answer questions specific to any case.

Cases on the docket for Constitution Day are:

• State of Kansas v. Donald L. Davis (Sedgwick County), an appeal by in a human trafficking and statutory rape case. Davis was convicted of three counts of aggravated human trafficking and three counts of statutory rape. On three different occasions, Davis had sex with a 13-year-old girl. In addition, Davis took the girl to another man's house three times to have sex with the man. The man paid her for sex, and Davis kept half the money. Davis was sentenced to 25 years in prison. His appeal argues that (1) the jury should have decided the girl's age at the time of the offenses; (2) the district court erred by admitting hearsay evidence of the girl's age; (3) the district court improperly excluded certain evidence, and (4) the aggravated human trafficking statute is unconstitutional.
• State of Kansas v. Darren Rhoten (Ford County), an appeal of a DUI conviction on the grounds that the officer who made the stop did not have reasonable suspicion and, as a result, the district court should have suppressed the evidence.
• First National Bank of Hutchinson v. United Rentals Northwest, Inc. (Stanton County), a civil action arising from the collapse of a boom crane in November 2006, and lawsuits involving multiple parties.
• State of Kansas v. Nelson Glover (Sedgwick County), an appeal of a district court order denying the defendant’s motion to withdraw a guilty plea to charges of second-degree murder, aggravated burglary and aggravated robbery.
• State of Kansas v. Abigail Reed (Finney County), an appeal accusing the State of illegal sentencing after revoking probation for charges involving indecent solicitation of a child.
• State of Kansas v. Anthony H. Martinez (Sedgwick County), an appeal, following sentencing for failure to register under the Kansas Registration Act, on the grounds that the district court erred in classifying the defendant’s prior municipal convictions as personal misdemeanors in his criminal history and violated his constitutional rights by failing to have a jury decide his criminal history.

Oral arguments will take an hour break for lunch at 12:30 p.m. Last year, 150 people attended the event. Judges David E. Bruns, G. Joseph Pierron Jr. and Anthony J. Powell will preside over the hearings.