State v. Corbin, 461 P.3d 38

In 2014 Nicholas Corbin pled no contest to first-degree premeditated murder for withholding care and abusing his infant son; he faced a mandatory hard 25-to-life term.
Corbin moved under K.S.A. 21-6622(b) to be found a person with intellectual disability, which would exempt him from the mandatory minimum; the district court denied the motion after considering two agreed presentence evaluations.
While Corbin's first appeal was pending, the Legislature amended the statutory definition of significantly subaverage general intellectual functioning to allow measures beyond strict IQ cutoffs and made the amendment retroactive.
This court in State v. Corbin (Corbin I) reversed and remanded for the district court to reconsider the reason-to-believe determination under the amended statute, permitting additional evidence.
On remand Corbin submitted additional mental-health and school records and testified; the district court again denied relief, finding the record showed average to borderline functioning and that any deficits were attributable to personality/mental-health issues, not intellectual disability.
The Supreme Court reviewed the district court's subsections (b) reason-to-believe determination for abuse of discretion and affirmed, holding the denial was supported by substantial competent evidence.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Whether the district court abused its discretion in denying Corbin's K.S.A. 21-6622(b) motion that he is a person with intellectual disability	Corbin: evaluations and records (Dr. Daum, Dr. Patton, school records, testimony) show limited intellectual and adaptive functioning under the amended statute	State/District Court: most evidence shows average to borderline functioning; adaptive deficits stem from personality/mental-health issues; GAMA, WAIS-IV, prison functioning undermine disability claim	Affirmed — no abuse of discretion; ruling reasonably based on law and supported by substantial competent evidence
Whether State v. Thurber's invalidation of the statutory incapacity language alters the outcome here	Corbin did not press an argument extending Thurber beyond death-penalty context	State: district court relied on incapacity-language findings but Corbin did not seek Thurber relief	Court declined to extend Thurber because Corbin did not argue it; issue treated as waived/abandoned

State v. Corbin, 305 Kan. 619, 386 P.3d 513 (remanded for reconsideration under amended intellectual-disability criteria)
State v. Thurber, 308 Kan. 140, 420 P.3d 389 (held incapacity-language unconstitutional in death-penalty context)
State v. Salary, 309 Kan. 479, 437 P.3d 953 (issues not adequately briefed are deemed waived)
State v. Pewenofkit, 307 Kan. 730, 415 P.3d 398 (points raised incidentally and not argued are abandoned)