The Kansas Supreme Court Friday affirmed the Sedgwick County District Court’s order denying Reginald Carr’s and Jonathan Carr’s motions for resentencing. The Carr brothers were convicted of numerous crimes, including capital murder, arising from a notorious crime spree in Wichita in 2000. The Court ultimately affirmed the brothers’ death sentences on appeal.
The Carrs then sought new sentencing hearings at the district court, arguing their prior appeal left unresolved sentencing issues regarding their capital murder convictions and their other convictions. The district court denied their motions and the brothers appealed to the Supreme Court.
In a unanimous decision written by Justice K.J. Wall, the Court held the brothers were not entitled to resentencing on their capital murder convictions. The Court explained that its mandate — an appellate court order issued after an appellate court’s decision becomes final — from the brothers’ prior appeal was a final judgment affirming their death sentences, and the mandate left no unresolved issues for the district court to address.
The Court noted that its most recent decision addressing the brothers’ case did not remand it to the district court or provide the district court with any instructions for further proceedings. Instead, the Court had made the statutory findings required to affirm the death sentences — that is, the Court found that the sentences were supported by the evidence and not influenced by passion or prejudice. So, the mandate rule — the rule that lower courts must follow mandates issued by appellate courts — barred the brothers’ request for resentencing on their capital murder convictions.
The Court also rejected the brothers’ challenges to the sentences the district court imposed for their non-capital convictions. The Court held that the brothers could not raise these new issues for the first time in a motion filed after the mandate in their direct appeal was issued. And while a claim that a sentence is illegal may be raised at any time, the Court held that none of the brothers’ claims fell within the statutory definition of an illegal sentence.
The Carr Brothers were sentenced to death for for the killings of four people taken from a Wichita apartment, forced to withdraw money at ATM machines, and later shot execution style in a field on the edge of the city. A fifth person survived the incident. In a separate case they were convicted of the slaying of a Wichita woman.
