WICHITA, Kan. (AP) A Sedgwick County judge imposed a Hard 50 prison sentence on a man convicted of killing a Wichita woman while he was on parole for another murder in Lawrence.
Tyrone Walker was sentenced Thursday for strangling Janis Sanders, 44, in June 2011. He had been paroled in February of that year after serving a 12-year sentence for killing Tamara Baker, 25, in October 1989.
District Judge Joseph Bribiesca imposed the Hard 50 sentence less than a month after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that questioned the constitutionality of such sentences. Bribiesca said the ruling did not apply to Walker’s case.
Questions about the Hard 50 sentence prompted a special session of the Kansas Legislature, which will convene next month.
