Lawyers for two brothers sentenced to death in a quadruple murder known as the “Wichita Massacre” will argue Monday for a formal resentencing hearing, the latest in a long series of appeals.
The manner in which the sentence was handed down has long been a point of contention, as the two brothers – Jonathan and Reginald Carr – had a joint hearing when jurors considered their sentences. Prosecutors plan to oppose the latest efforts.
Prosecutors have long maintained that the brothers broke into a home in December 2000 and forced the three men and two women to have sex with each other and then withdraw money from ATMs. Jonathan Carr was 20 years old and Reginald Carr 23 years old when the murders took place; they are now 44 and 46 years old and both are incarcerated at the state’s maximum security prison in El Dorado, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) northeast of Wichita.
Authorities say the women were raped multiple times before the five victims were taken to a soccer field and shot. Four of them died: Aaron Sander, 29; Brad Heyka, 27; Jason Béfort, 26 years old; and Heather Muller, 25. The woman who survived testified against the Carr brothers. They were also convicted of murdering another person in a separate attack.
Each brother accused the other of committing the crimes.
Kansas has nine men on death row, but the state has not executed anyone since murderous duo James Latham and George York were hanged on the same day in June 1965.
Lawyers for both brothers raised concerns in the latest round of court filings that the trial lawyers were ineffective – Reginald Carr’s defense said they were “blatantly” – and did not failed to aggressively lobby for the extension to give itself more time to prepare. They also agreed that potential jurors were not properly asked about racial bias. The brothers are black, their victims white.
Reginald Carr’s lawyer also opened an investigation into members of the Wichita police exchanging racist, sexist and homophobic texts and images. Several of them were eventually disciplined, and Carr’s lawyer wrote that one of them was involved in the investigation of the brothers.
From there, the brothers’ attorneys digress in their court filings. Jonathan Carr’s attorneys argued that trial attorneys failed to investigate and present evidence that Reginald Carr, who is older, had a strong influence over his younger brother and sexually assaulted him. A Kansas Department of Corrections evaluation, conducted just days after Jonathan Carr’s death sentence, found that he “appears to idolize his brother,” his lawyers wrote.
Meanwhile, Reginald Carr’s attorneys wrote that trial attorneys were not prepared to refute Jonathan’s defense, which they described as “made up largely of family members willing to promote the rescue of the life of Jonathan Carr rather than that of his older brother. And they further argued that the DNA evidence and identification was actually stronger against Jonathan Carr.
Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to request a formal resentencing hearing for each defendant. The action came just under a year after the Kansas Supreme Court ruled that both brothers received a fair trial and upheld their death sentences.
The Kansas court upheld their convictions in 2014 but overturned their death sentences, finding that failure to hold separate hearings violated the U.S. Constitution. The U.S. Supreme Court overturned that decision in 2016, sending the case back to the Kansas Supreme Court.
When the Kansas Supreme Court took over the brothers’ cases, their attorneys raised questions that their cases were not handled separately when jurors considered whether the death penalty was justified. Other issues raised included the instructions given to jurors and the manner in which closing arguments were conducted.
The majority of the Kansas court concluded that even if the lower court judge and prosecutors made errors, those errors did not warrant another reversal of their death sentences.
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