The case was the subject of Truman Capote's best-selling book, "In Cold Blood. Two months earlier, the state had hanged Perry Smith and Richard Hickock for the murders committed near Garden City of four members of the Herbert Clutter family. Hanging was the state's method of capital punishment when it carried out its last execution, of spree killers James Latham and George York in June 1965. That state maintains a lethal injection chamber, where it plans to carry out executions, in an administration building at Lansing Correctional Facility, but no execution date has ever been set for any of the inmates facing death sentences.
Then, if jurors reach a guilty verdict, they decide if the defendant is to die by lethal injection. Kansas law calls for juries hearing capital murder cases to first decide if the defendant is guilty. The Kansas Supreme Court on Friday upheld the death sentences of Wichita brothers Jonathan Carr, left, and Reginald Carr, right. It held that capital punishment does not infringe on the "inalienable right to life," that bill provides. The Kansas high court on Friday rejected both challenges raised under the Kansas Constitution Bill of Rights. It remanded the case back to Kansas courts.įriday's decision came after the high court subsequently reviewed more than 20 penalty phase issues that had not been previously addressed, including two supplemental state constitutional issues raised after the 2016 U.S. Supreme Court in 2016 reversed that decision, saying the joint sentencing proceeding neither implicated the Carrs' Eighth Amendment rights nor violated their rights regarding due process. The Kansas Supreme Court in 2014 vacated the death sentences for both, concluding their Eighth Amendment right to an individualized sentencing was violated by the Sedgwick County District Court judge's refusal to sever their trial's penalty phase. The Carr brothers also were convicted of first-degree murder in the Wichita gunshot death of 55-year-old Ann Walenta on Dec. She provided key testimony during the Carr brothers' trial. The woman ran to a house for help and to report the slayings.
The current capital punishment law was enacted in 1994, but the state's highest court has yet to approve any death sentences, which has led to criticism from legislators and other officials who support the death penalty.A fifth person, a woman, also was shot in the back of the head, but a hair clip diverted the bullet, saving her life. Kansas' last legal executions were in 1965, by hanging. Supreme Court later ordered the Kansas court to reconsider.
Last year it ordered a new trial for Scott Cheever in the shooting of the Greenwood County sheriff in 2005, though the U.S. The state Supreme Court last week overturned the death sentence of Sidney Gleason in the killings of a Great Bend couple in 2004. The Supreme Court upheld a total of 57 convictions against them.įive other convicted murderers, all men, remain on death row in Kansas. They killed five people and a dog, committed robberies and burglaries, and also assaulted people (1). They started small when on December 8, 2000, Andrew Schreiber was accosted at gunpoint in front of a convenience store. Together, they were convicted of 93 crimes, including rape, aggravated kidnapping and aggravated robbery and sentenced to death. The Carr Brothers Reginald and Jonathan Carr went on a crime spree in 2000, in which they terrorized the town of Wichita, Kansas. The brothers traveled from their hometown, Dodge City, to Wichita shortly before starting their crime spree. On September 9, Reginald Carr and his brother Jonathan go on trial for what has become known as the Wichita Massacre. Jonathan Carr, now 34, and Reginald Carr, 36, were in their early 20s when the crimes occurred. Stephen Webster, American Renaissance, August 2002. Several days later, according to prosecutors, the Carrs shot a female outside her Wichita home. 7, 2000 when they kidnapped a 23-year-old man from a Wichita convenience store and robbed him. The Carr brothers also were convicted of first-degree murder in connection with the fatal shooting of a 55-year-old cellist, Ann Walenta of Wichita, only days before the spree that left four dead. The Carr brothers were charged with multiple counts of murder, robbery, rape and other crimes in a crime spree that began Dec. The two women were raped repeatedly before the five were taken to the soccer field and shot while they were kneeling. Prosecutors said the five friends were in a Wichita home when two armed intruders forced them to engage in sex with each other and later made them withdraw money from automatic teller machines.