© 2024 KMUW
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Carr Brothers' Sentences Reinstated By US Supreme Court

File photo
/
KMUW

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled in favor of reinstating the death penalty for the Carr Brothers and another death row inmate named Sidney Gleason, who was convicted in a separate case.

In an 8-1 ruling, the high court rejected the Kansas Supreme Court’s conclusion that the U.S. Constitution barred the death sentences recommended by jurors for both the Carr brothers and Gleason.

Credit http://www.doc.ks.gov

In July 2014 the Kansas Supreme Court overturned the sentences, saying that juries in the cases should have been told that evidence of the men’s troubled childhoods and other factors weighing against a death sentence did not have to be proved beyond a reasonable doubt. The lower court also had ruled that the Carr brothers should have had separate sentencing hearings instead of a joint one. In the Gleason case, the Kansas Supreme Court said improper jury instructions were given.

 
Jonathan and Reginald Carr were convicted of four capital murder charges each and given death sentences for crimes they committed in December 2000. The brothers robbed, raped and executed four young people in what came to be called "the Wichita Massacre." Sidney Gleason was sentenced to die for the 2004 murder of a Great Bend woman and her boyfriend after she witnessed a robbery.

The Sedgwick County District Attorney’s office prosecuted the Carr cases in the trial court. Current District Attorney Marc Bennett worked with Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt on the appeal and said there were many people who played a pivotal role in the convictions.

“Rather than to take credit where credit belongs to others, the relief those families must have felt to get this was palpable," Bennett said during a press conference.

 

Justice Antonin Scalia wrote the opinion for the court.

Today’s ruling settles the federal constitutional issues that were incorrectly identified by the Kansas Supreme Court. Justice Antonin Scalia wrote the court's opinion, saying the Carr brothers' "joint sentencing proceedings did not render the sentencing proceedings unfair."

Justice Sonia Sotomayor was the only dissenter. In her dissent, she wrote, " I do not believe these cases should ever have been reviewed by the Supreme Court. I see no reason to intervene in cases like these— and plenty of reasons not to." 

The cases now return to the Kansas Supreme Court, which will determine whether additional proceedings are necessary.

More from the AP:

WASHINGTON--The Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled in favor of Kansas officials seeking to reinstate the death penalty for three men, including two brothers convicted in a crime spree known as the "Wichita massacre."

The justices ruled 8-1 that the Kansas Supreme Court was wrong to overturn the sentences of Jonathan and Reginald Carr, and Sidney Gleason, who was convicted in a separate case.

The state court said juries in both cases should have been told that evidence of the men's troubled childhoods and other factors weighing against a death sentence did not have to be proved beyond a reasonable doubt. The lower court also had ruled that the Carr brothers should have had separate sentencing hearings instead of a joint one.

The Supreme Court said the Kansas court's reasoning was flawed on both counts.

Writing for the court, Justice Antonin Scalia said there is no requirement to tell jurors in a death sentence case that they can consider a factor favoring the defendant even if it's not proved beyond a reasonable doubt.

"Jurors were told to consider any mitigating circumstance, even those not found to exist by other members of the jury," Scalia said. "Jurors would not have misunderstood these instructions to prevent their consideration of constitutionally relevant evidence."

The court also ruled that the district court was not required to hold separate a separate sentencing proceeding for each brother. Reginald Carr had argued that his sentence may have been unfairly tainted because Jonathan Carr blamed Reginald for being a bad influence during their childhoods.

"Only the most extravagant speculation would lead one to conclude that the supposedly prejudicial evidence introduced by one brother rendered the sentencing proceeding fundamentally unfair to the other," Scalia said.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor was the lone dissenter, saying the case never should have been taken up by the Supreme Court. Sotomayer said the Kansas Supreme Court "has overprotected its citizens" and had a right to do so under its interpretation of federal and state laws.

Prosecutors in the Carr case said the brothers were responsible for a night of mayhem and murder in 2000 when they broke into a Wichita home and, over the course of several hours, forced the three men and two women there to have sex with each other and later to withdraw money from ATMs.

The women were raped repeatedly before all five were taken to a snow-covered soccer field and shot in the head. One woman survived a gunshot wound to the head after the bullet was deflected by a plastic hair clip.

Gleason was convicted in the February 2004 killing of Mikiala Martinez and Darren Wornkey in Great Bend. Martinez was a potential witness against Gleason in a previous robbery in which he was involved. Wornkey was her boyfriend.

Here is the Kansas Attorney General's office release on the ruling.