Kansas Supreme Court affirms death sentences for brothers responsible for ‘Wichita massacre’

TOPEKA — The Kansas Supreme Court upheld the death sentences of the brothers who went on a crime spree in 2000 in Wichita, putting an end to two decades of attempts to alter the brothers’ fates.

Reginald and Jonathan Carr were initially convicted of more than 90 counts, including capital murder, kidnapping and rape charges, after nine days of crimes known as the “Wichita massacre.”

The Kansas Supreme Court unanimously agreed to uphold the brothers’ death sentences in a pair of 23-page opinions published Friday that asserted the sentences had already been resolved.

Previously, the state Supreme Court described the brothers as responsible for a “notorious Wichita crime spree (that) culminated in the brutal rape, robbery, kidnapping, and execution style shooting of five young men and women.”

The Carr brothers’ crimes were notable for their “enormity and scale,” Justice K.J. Wall wrote in the decision.

In a three-part analysis of the legal mechanisms of the Carr brothers’ appeal, Wall addressed how the Kansas Supreme Court concluded there was no room to resentence the brothers, take up new legal challenges or render the brothers’ sentences illegal.

A previous appellate court order was the final judgment that cemented the brothers’ death sentences, Wall said in the opinion.

A jury convicted the brothers in 2004 of eight counts of capital murder — four each for the four people who died as a result of the brothers’ crimes. The jury sentenced them to death.

Since then, the brothers’ cases have ping-ponged from district court to the Kansas Supreme Court to the U.S. Supreme Court and back again.

In 2014, the Kansas Supreme Court reversed seven of the eight capital murder convictions because of a technical error in jury instructions and also overturned their death sentences, concluding the Eighth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution entitled the brothers to separate sentencing proceedings.

The U.S. Supreme Court disagreed, reversing the state Supreme Court’s decision and sending it back to Kansas. The Kansas Supreme Court in 2022 addressed lingering sentencing issues and affirmed the brothers’ death sentences.

“Specifically, we concluded that the death sentence had not been imposed under the influence of passion, prejudice, or other arbitrary factors and that the evidence supported the jury’s sentence,” Wall said of the case that was remanded from the U.S. Supreme Court.

Most recently, the brothers tried to revisit their sentences a third time, which was at hand in the Kansas Supreme Court’s decision Friday. A district court judge held a resentencing hearing but concluded the court didn’t have jurisdiction to resentence the brothers. The brothers appealed that decision to the Kansas Supreme Court, which heard arguments on the matter in January.

The brothers also recently sought clemency from the governor, along with a slate of other men on Kansas’ death row. Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach held a press conference earlier this month in Wichita, urging Gov. Laura Kelly to deny the clemency requests. 

“These clemency requests are an outrage to the victims of these killers and all Kansans,” Kobach said in a news release. “A jury sentenced them to death. I urge Gov. Kelly to reject clemency and deliver long-overdue justice for the families.”

The brothers have been imprisoned at the El Dorado Correctional Facility since 2002. Reginald Carr, 48, has accumulated more than 50 disciplinary violations since 2000. Jonathan Carr, 46, has accumulated more than 30 since 2003.