Kansas’ Supreme Court on Friday will hear the appeal of a death row inmate for the first time since Election Day, when the state’s voters chose to keep four justices targeted for removal by opponents who disapproved of their decision to overturn other death sentences.
The appeal from James Kraig Kahler’s attorneys will reportedly question whether his death sentence was warranted and argue that a lower court made mistakes en route to convicting him of killing his estranged wife, his two teenage daughters and his wife’s grandmother in 2009. Kahler’s killing spree came after his wife began a romantic relationship with a woman.
Kahler showed no emotion upon receiving his death sentence, as video from KRCG 13 shows:
Kansas reinstated the death penalty in 1994, but it has not executed an inmate since then. A jury unanimously sentenced Kahler to death in 2011.
