Topeka ? A Shawnee County judge under fire for his sentencing in some rape cases has been ordered to give a longer sentence to a man convicted of raping a child.

The Kansas Court of Appeals has ordered Shawnee County District Judge Franklin Theis to lengthen the sentence of William Pennington, who was convicted of raping a family member younger than 14, officials said Tuesday.

Theis had originally sentenced Pennington to nearly 13 years and nine months in prison, but the appellate court determined that Pennington’s minimum sentence should be 17 years and 10 months.

Dist. Atty. Robert Hecht appealed the original sentence because state guidelines suggest that someone with Pennington’s criminal record could receive a sentence of between 46 years and two months and 51 1/2 years in prison.

Pennington’s case is one of three that prompted a group of Topeka residents to join with the National Association to Protect Children to launch a campaign to remove Theis from the bench. Shawnee County voters will be able to decide on Nov. 2 if Theis should be retained.

“This is other judges saying what he did was wrong,” said Monica Brede, part of the ouster campaign. “It definitely adds strength to it — the fact that his fellow, professional peers see him as making mistakes.”

Judicial codes of conduct prohibit Theis from commenting on pending cases. During Pennington’s sentencing in 2002, the judge said he was discounting Pennington’s criminal history because of the man’s “mild retardation” and limited ability to form adequate judgments.

The judge also said an evaluation of Pennington did not indicate he was a pedophile, noting the case involved the rape of a family member, not a stranger. Theis also said a sentence of more than 50 years would have been the equivalent of the death penalty because Pennington was 40 years old when he was sentenced.

In its ruling Friday, the Court of Appeals said Pennington’s diminished mental capacity was an appropriate mitigating factor in sentencing. But the appellate judges said Theis’ decision to completely disregard the defendant’s previous criminal behavior was “an abuse of discretion.”

The judges also criticized Theis for saying Pennington deserved leniency because his case involved intercourse with a family member and wasn’t a case of rape by a stranger.

The group seeking Theis’ removal from the bench has also criticized him for sentencings in the cases of Brandon Davis, of Topeka, who was given 13 months in prison after pleading guilty to raping a child; and Stephan Grimmett, of Topeka, who was sentenced to nine years and eight months of probation after pleading no contest to sodomizing a 6-year-old boy.

In Lawrence, a group called the Justice for Children Committee is seeking the ouster of Douglas County District Judge Paula Martin for lightened sentences in the June 2003 rape of a 13-year-old girl.