Wichita Massacre

The Wichita Massacre, also known as the Wichita Horror, was a week-long violent crime spree perpetrated by brothers Reginald and Jonathan Carr, in the city of Wichita, Kansas, between December 8 and 15, 2000. Five people were killed, and two people, a man and a woman, were severely wounded. The brothers were arrested and convicted of multiple counts of murder, kidnapping, robbery, and rape. They were both sentenced to death in October 2002.^[1] Their vicious crimes created panic in the Wichita area resulting in an increase in the sales of guns, locks, and home security systems.^[2]

The case has received significant attention because the killers' death sentences have been subject to various rulings related to the use of executions in Kansas. In 2004, the Kansas Supreme Court overturned the state's death penalty law, but the Kansas Attorney General appealed to the US Supreme Court, which upheld the constitutionality of the death penalty in Kansas. On July 25, 2014, the Kansas Supreme Court again overturned the Carrs' death sentences on a legal technicality relating to their original trial judge not giving each brother a separate penalty proceeding.^[3] After an appeal by the state's attorney general to the US Supreme Court, it overturned the decision of the Kansas Supreme Court in January 2016 and reinstated the death sentences.^[4] The Carr brothers are incarcerated on death row at El Dorado Correctional Facility.