TOPEKA – (January 9, 2023) – The U.S. Supreme Court this morning declined to hear appeals from two men convicted of capital murder for killing four people in Wichita in 2000, Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt said.
The court declined to hear appeals from Jonathan and Reginald Carr, who were convicted of capital murder in relation to the crimes and sentenced to death. Today’s action means the two defendants have exhausted their direct appeals and their convictions and death sentences are considered final, although they still have the ability to file additional lawsuits in state or federal court seeking to prevent their executions, and it is expected they will do so.
This is the second time the U.S. Supreme Court has considered these cases. In 2016, the Court decided an appeal from Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt asking it to reinstate the defendants’ death sentences after the Kansas Supreme Court had overturned them. The U.S. Supreme Court reversed the Kansas court’s ruling, and in 2022 the Kansas Supreme Court then rejected additional challenges to the convictions and death sentences.
“The slow but steady march toward justice continues,” Schmidt said.
A total of nine people currently are under sentence of death in Kansas. Including today’s decisions, seven of those have exhausted their direct appeals, meaning their convictions and sentences are affirmed and they are now in various stages of collateral litigation. Those who have exhausted their direct appeals, in addition to the Carr bothers, are Gary Kleypas, John Robinson, Sydney Gleason, Scott Cheever, and James Kraig Kahler. The two whose cases are still on direct appeal are Justin Thurber and Kyle Flack.
