Kansas Supreme Court issues questions in Carr brothers’ cases
The long-simmering question of whether Jonathan and Reginald Carr will receive the death penalty has reached a new stage – with the Kansas Supreme Court issuing 18 questions for attorneys on both sides.
The questions, filed in an order by the state’s high court late Friday, appear to deal not with whether the two brothers are guilty of some of the most notorious multiple murders in Wichita’s history but with whether they should be sentenced to die. The court’s questions, signed by Chief Justice Lawton Nuss, focus on such things as:
▪ whether the trial judge erred by excluding “mitigating” evidence that would argue against a death sentence and by denying some defense testimony.
▪ whether the death penalty is “an unconstitutionally disproportionate punishment” for “aiders and abettors.”
▪ whether Kansas’ execution protocol protects against “unnecessary pain.”
▪ whether state law requires separate penalty proceedings for the defendants. The U.S. Supreme Court has already found that the two brothes didn’t need separate penalty proceedings under the U.S. Constitution.
The Carrs were convicted of robbing, raping, kidnapping and shooting five people – four of whom died – in Wichita in 2000. They were sentenced to death in 2002.
The Carrs’ attorneys couldn’t be reached Monday.
Sedgwick County District Attorney Marc Bennett, whose office is continuing to prosecute the Carrs, said Monday that he wasn’t surprised by the court’s questions, that it is part of the painstaking death-penalty process.
“I guess the only thing I’m reading into this is the Kansas Supreme Court wants to make sure that every ‘t’ is crossed, every ‘i’ is dotted,” Bennett told The Eagle by phone.
Bennett said he recognizes that some people are going to be irritated that the justice system seems to move so slowly on death-penalty cases. But the new stage in the Carrs’ cases should not be used by either side in debate over whether the state should use capital punishment, Bennett said.
“This is how it works,” he said. “It’s slow. I’m not upset by this; I’m not encouraged by this.”
In January the U.S. Supreme Court put the Carrs’ cases back in the hands of the Kansas Supreme Court, ruling that that the brothers’ death sentences were wrongfully overturned.
Now, the state’s high court is having to deal with issues that remain unresolved, Bennett said. Hence, the questions issued late Friday. It’s another chance for attorneys on both sides to weigh in.
The “bottom line is there is no fast track to the death chamber and probably shouldn’t be,” Bennett said.
One thing that is taking Kansas longer, Bennett said, is that the Sunflower State has relatively few death-penalty cases compared to others, such as Texas. Kansas is still working through the process.
http://www.kansas.com/news/local/cri...#storylink=cpy
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