Convicted murderers Scott Cheever, Kyle Flack and James Kahler are all now waiting for Kansas Governor Laura Kelly’s decisions on whether to grant them executive clemency.
Cheever was sentenced to death in early 2008 following the shooting death of Greenwood County Sheriff Matt Samuels during a drug raid in 2005. Cheever also got numerous life terms in prison for charges attempted capital murder, manufacturing methamphetamine and conspiracy to manufacture meth. According to the Kansas Judicial Branch website, Cheever is awaiting a decision on his latest appeal, which has focused on claims of ineffective counsel. Both sides offered proposed findings of fact and conclusions of law to Greenwood County Judge Mike Ward late last year following a bench trial this past October.
Flack murdered four people in Franklin County in 2013 before being arrested in Emporia shortly after the crimes. He was convicted of capital murder in 2016. His latest appeal in the Kansas court system has a status conference in October
Kahler, meanwhile, killed his wife, two daughters and his wife’s grandmother near Burlingame in 2009 and was convicted of capital murder in 2011. He has a motion hearing June 24.
Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach urged Governor Kelly to reject the requests, saying they “are an outrage to the victims of these killers and all Kansans,” adding the cases “represent some of the most brutal crimes in Kansas history.”
Chase County Sheriff Jacob Welsh spoke out specifically about Cheever’s request to change the sentence from the death penalty to life in prison with no hope of parole. In a letter to the Kansas Department of Corrections’ Prisoner Review Board, Welsh said Cheever’s crime “strikes at the very foundation of public safety and the rule of law. He also says the sentence “was the product of due process, careful deliberation and a jury’s determination that the severity of the crime warranted the highest level of accountability under Kansas law” — and to consider change the sentence “is not an act of justice, it is a rejection of it.”
There is no word on when Governor Kelly will announce her decisions.
