KS Man James Kahler Charged With Capital Murder in Deaths of Wife and 2 Daughter

[AnneTheBelgian]

http://www.chron.com/news/article/Testimony-wraps-up-in-quadruple-murder-trial-2139232.php

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Testimony wraps up in quadruple murder trial

Published 12:55 p.m., Wednesday, August 24, 2011

LYNDON, Kan. (AP) — Testimony has concluded in the capital murder trial of a man accused of killing his wife, their two teenage daughters and his wife's grandmother in northeast Kansas.

Jurors in the trial of 48-year-old James Kraig Kahler heard testimony Wednesday from a psychiatrist who said Kahler could deliberate and form the intent to kill despite being depressed.

Attorneys are expected to give closing arguments Thursday and jurors are expected to begin deliberations shortly afterward.

Prosecutors are pursing the death penalty over the shootings, which occurred the weekend after Thanksgiving 2009 in the home of his wife's grandmother about 20 miles south of Topeka. Kahler is a former city utilities director in Weatherford, Texas and Columbia, Mo., but he moved back to Kansas weeks before the murder.
















Anne

[AnneTheBelgian]

http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2011/08/25/general-us-kansas-family-slain_8642685.html

Associated Press

Jurors deliberate Kansas capital murder case

By JOHN HANNA , 08.25.11, 02:11 PM EDT

LYNDON, Kan. -- A Kansas man accused of murdering four family members was mentally "broken" because of his wife's lesbian affair and her pursuit of a divorce, his attorneys told jurors Thursday during closing arguments, though prosecutors said he hunted his victims out of anger because his family no longer appeared perfect.

Jurors began deliberating after listening to those final arguments in the case of James Kraig Kahler, who is charged with capital murder for the shooting deaths of his estranged wife, their two teenage daughters and the wife's grandmother. If convicted, he could face the death penalty.

The four victims were fatally shot the weekend after Thanksgiving 2009 in the grandmother's home outside Burlingame, about 20 miles south of Topeka. During the trial, witnesses testified that Kahler was obsessed with his failing marriage.

"What happens when someone who's rigid is put under too much pressure?" defense attorney Thomas Haney said, breaking a pencil in front of jurors. "They snap."

Kahler, 48, was a city utilities director in Weatherford, Texas, and Columbia, Mo., but moved back to Kansas shortly before the shootings to live with his parents outside Topeka.

According to trial testimony, his wife began having a sexual relationship with another woman in Texas in 2008, before Kahler took the job in Missouri. His wife filed for divorce in January 2009, and witnesses said Kahler became so engrossed in his failing marriage that his work suffered and he lost his job.

Assistant Attorney General Amy Hanley acknowledged that Kahler was depressed, but she said his actions and evidence at the crime scene showed that he made conscious choices to execute his plan to kill specific victims. Hanley said he was angry because to him, his family was supposed to be perfect.

"When they're no longer perfect, he kills them - he eliminates a problem," she told jurors. "He carried out his plan to perfection. He got his results."

Prosecutors said Kahler, who goes by his middle name, Kraig, killed of his wife, 44-year-old Karen Kahler; her grandmother, Dorothy Wight, 89; and the Kahlers' daughters, Emily, 18, and Lauren, 16.

"They were white prey in a hunt," Hanley said. "He tracked them."

Wight and Lauren Kahler identified Kraig Kahler as the gunman before they died, law enforcement and emergency medical workers said. The Kahlers' son, Sean, now 12, escaped without physical injury. He testified that he saw his father shoot his mother.

According to testimony, Kraig Kahler became closer to his son than to his daughters and was upset with his daughters because he believed they had sided with their mother in the divorce. A psychiatrist testified that Kraig Kahler said in an interview that he believed Wight had an obligation to push Karen Kahler to return to him.

Defense attorney Amy Vogelsberg told jurors that her client wasn't a monster.

"He was at the end of his rope, and there was no anchor," Vogelsberg said. "You take the worst day of your life and you live it day after day for 11 months, and that is what Mr. Kahler faced."















Anne

[JeffB]

Kansas man convicted of capital murder in deaths of wife, 2 teen daughters, wife's grandmother

A jury convicted a Kansas man of capital murder on Thursday in the shooting deaths of his estranged wife, their 2 teenage daughters and his wife's grandmother — crimes his attorneys said he committed after his spouse took a lesbian lover and filed for divorce.

Attorneys for James Kraig Kahler had argued that his mental health deteriorated and he finally snapped because of his pending divorce and his wife's sexual relationship with another woman whom she met when they lived in Texas. But prosecutors painted a picture of man who coldly picked off his victims, one by one, at the home of his wife's grandmother, near Burlingame, a small town 20 miles south of Topeka, during the weekend after Thanksgiving 2009.

The Osage County jury needed only about 2 hours to reach a verdict. Kahler, dressed in a dark suit, stood calmly and showed no outward emotion as the bailiff announced the verdict. His parents, seated in the front row, also appeared calm.

Jurors will next hear additional evidence and consider whether to recommend a death sentence, weighing issues such as the cruelty involved in the shootings against Kahler's previous lack of a criminal record and his mental state at the time of the crimes.

Kahler, who goes by his middle name, Kraig, was convicted of 4 counts of 1st-degree murder as well as a single count of capital murder — a charge that prosecutors could bring because Kansas law says multiple murders can qualify a defendant for the death penalty if they're part of "the same transaction" or "a common scheme." Kahler also was convicted of one count of aggravated burglary, with prosecutors contending he entered the grandmother's home without permission.

Kahler, 48, had directed city utility departments in Weatherford, Texas, and Columbia, Mo., but moved back to Kansas just weeks before the shootings to live with his parents. Witnesses testified that he lost the Missouri job after he became obsessed with keeping his marriage alive and that he believed his daughters had sided with his wife.

The victims were his wife, 44-year-old Karen Kahler; her grandmother, Dorothy Wight, 89; and the Kahlers' daughters, Emily, 18, and Lauren, 16.

Law enforcement officers and emergency medical personnel said that before dying, Wight and Lauren Kahler identified Kraig Kahler as the gunman. The Kahlers' son Sean, now 12, also testified that he saw his father shoot his mother before he escaped the scene without physical injury.

In closing arguments earlier Thursday, Assistant Attorney General Amy Hanley said Kahler was angry and gunned down his family members because he believed he could fix his problems by getting rid of those he felt were responsible.

"The defendant had a plan," Hanley told jurors. "In his mind he had a problem to eliminate, and he knew how to do it."

Defense attorney Thomas Haney said Kahler was mentally "broken" because of his wife's lesbian affair and her pursuit of a divorce.

"What happens when someone who's rigid is put under too much pressure?" Haney said, breaking a pencil in front of jurors. "They snap."

Kahler was a city utilities director in Weatherford, Texas, and Columbia, Mo., but moved back to Kansas shortly before the shootings to live with his parents outside Topeka.

According to trial testimony, his wife began having a sexual relationship with the other woman in Texas in 2008, before Kahler took the job in Missouri. His wife filed for divorce in January 2009, and witnesses said Kahler became so obsessed with his failing marriage that his work suffered and he lost his job.

Partners in a Kansas City, Mo., psychiatric office testified on opposite sides of the case about Kahler's mental health. One said Kahler was so severely depressed that he wasn't thinking rationally and couldn't control his behavior at the time of the killings. The other said Kahler's depression wasn't serious enough to prevent him from forming the intent to kill or making conscious decisions about what he did.

Kansas law says a mentally ill defendant still is legally responsible for a crime, unless his illness or mental defect prevented him forming an intent to commit the crime and, in the case of capital or first-degree murder, acting with premeditation.

(soruce: Star Tribune)

[AnneTheBelgian]

http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/2011/aug/26/neighbors-friends-react-guilty-verdict/

Neighbors, friends react to guilty verdict

By Brennan David

Friday, August 26, 2011

BURLINGAME, Kan. — The grave-site of three Columbia residents who were slain by their husband and father stands just a few hundred yards from the site where their lives were taken. The shared headstone lists their separate names and birthdates, but large, bold letters across the bottom spell out a date they share for eternity: “November 28, 2009.”

An Osage County jury yesterday convicted former Columbia Water and Light Director Kraig Kahler, 48, of capital murder for shooting his wife, Karen Kahler, 44; their daughters, Emily, 18, and Lauren, 16; and Dorothy Wight, 89, Karen Kahler’s grandmother, on that date at Wight’s home in Burlingame.

Few who followed the trial seem to have bought the now-convicted capital murderer’s insanity defense, but they also said no sane man could kill his children the way Kahler did.

“He’s possibly a little insane,” Burlingame resident Troy Prescott said. “I don’t see a reason to ever do what he did.”

Prescott, like many residents of the small rural community of Burlingame, has been keeping up with the capital murder trial through media reports. The quadruple slaying shocked local residents and, to some, altered their small-town sense of security.

Although many residents are open to speaking about the slayings, others who knew Wight, a longtime resident of Burlingame, are angry.

“I knew the family a little bit, and I prefer not to talk about it,” said David Prescott, Troy Prescott’s father. “That was straight-out murder. … He deserves the death penalty.”

Kahler’s sentencing phase begins Monday. The same jurors who returned a guilty verdict on all counts will decide his fate — the death penalty or life in prison without parole.

Death by lethal injection might be too easy a penalty given the crimes, Burlingame resident Arin Zirkle said.

“It’s too easy to just say you’re insane,” she said. “If he was angry enough, he could have done it. … I don’t feel it’s fair to sentence” him “to death. I don’t feel like it’s enough punishment.

“If he is insane, he’s insane now because he has to deal with the fact that he killed them.”

As in Burlingame, some friends of the victims in Columbia yesterday were glad to hear news of the verdict.

“I’ve been checking the newspaper” website “all day,” said Shay Gann, a former member of Karen Kahler’s boot-camp classes she led at Columbia’s Activity & Recreation Center. “I yelled out, ‘He has been found guilty,’ and started texting members of our boot camp.”

She said she didn’t buy the insanity defense, either, but she also questioned how any sane person could murder his children.

Although reading the things the defense alleged against her friend was difficult, Gann said, now justice can be served.

“If given the death sentence, and it is actually carried out, he will still die in a much more humane way than his family did,” she said.















Anne

[JeffcoCitizen]

Wow, that was a quick verdict!  I guess the jury didn't buy his insanity defense, btw I didn't either.

[JTiscool]

I bet the PTO did 

[AnneTheBelgian]

http://cjonline.com/news/2011-08-29/kahler-lost-control-defense-psychiatrist-says#.TlvYPKiFAow

Monday, August 29, 2011

Kahler 'lost control,' defense psychiatrist says

Posted: August 29, 2011 - 10:52am

By Steve Fry
THE CAPITAL-JOURNAL

James Kraig Kahler was psychologically out of control on the night he shot four members of his family, a defense psychiatrist told jurors Monday during the sentencing phase of his capital murder trial.

On Friday, an Osage County District Court jury convicted Kahler of capital murder, four counts of first degree murder and one count of aggravated burglary, all tied to the Nov. 28, 2009, rampage in a Burlingame home.

Stephen Peterson, a forensic psychologist hired by the defense to evaluate Kahler, was asked by defense attorney Tom Haney about what control the defendant had over his actions.

“To me, it sounded like the actions of someone who completely lost control,” Peterson said. “He had shot the people he loved the most.”

Peterson repeated his earlier testimony that Kahler was suffering severe, major depression when he shot the victims. Peterson said the shootings appeared to be an isolated event, following almost a year of increasing pressure during a tumultuous separation from wife Karen Kahler.

Erik Mitchell, coroner, said the four victims were alive after they were shot. Mitchell, when asked, said none had been shot in the head.

“I would regard (shooting someone in the head) as much more humane rather than people lying around, bleeding out and aware of what was going on,” Mitchell said.

Osage County attorney Brandon Jones told jurors to think of the victims as they decide whether to invoke the death penalty or a life sentence without life parole for Kahler.

“Think about whether these victims suffered serious anguish,” Jones said.

Part of their anguish, Jones said, was from not knowing what their fate would be.

Jurors once again heard recordings of victim Lauren Kahler screaming for help as her father walked through the home. In another recording, Lauren Kahler was comforted by an Osage County Sheriff’s officer.

“I don’t want to die,” the daughter told Deputy Nathan Purling.

Jones told jurors the number of aggravating circumstances don’t have to outnumber the mitigating circumstances in order for them to impose the death penalty. The aggravating factors are that the victims were killed an especially heinous, atrocious or cruel manner and that their was more than one slaying victim.

The defense has submitted a list of mitigating factors, including that Kahler has no prior criminal history. Kahler was charged with battery of his wife in Columbia, Mo., but that case wasn’t resolved at the time of the killings.

Haney told jurors if any one of them found the aggravating circumstances didn’t outweigh the mitigating circumstances, there would not be a unanimous vote to impose the death penalty. To impose the death penalty, the jury must vote unanimously. If the jury doesn’t make a decision, the judge will impose life sentence without parole.

“In this state, we don’t kill the mentally ill,” Haney told the jurors.

The jury is taking a lunch break, and court will resume at 1 p.m.











Photo : Stephen Peterson, forensic psychiatrist, told jurors James Kraig Kahler was out of control when he fatally shot four members of his family in November 2009 in Burlingame. Peterson was hired by the defense.













Anne

[AnneTheBelgian]

http://cjonline.com/news/2011-08-29/jury-recommends-death-kahler#.Tlv8WqiFAow

Jury recommends death for Kahler

Posted: August 29, 2011 - 10:52am

By Steve Fry

THE CAPITAL-JOURNAL

An Osage County District Court jury has recommended the death penalty for James Kraig Kahler in the slayings of four family members.

The jury announced at 3:25 p.m. Monday it had reached its decision after deliberating for about an hour.

Earlier Monday afternoon, an assistant attorney general Monday urged an Osage County District Court jury to impose the death penalty on James Kraig Kahler, saying each of the four slaying victims died in anguish.

Kahler’s wife, two daughters and his wife’s grandmother “all died with an awareness that gave them the torture of slow death,” said Amy Hanley, the assistant attorney general.

They died with the awareness Kahler was armed with a gun, shooting at them and that he intended to kill each, Hanley told the jury.

“This is the proper case,” Hanley said, to impose the death penalty, pointing to two aggravating circumstances she said justified the death penalty.

More than one person was killed, and the four victims were murdered in a “heinous, atrocious or cruel manner,” she said.

“He murdered them all, one-by-one,” she said.

The jury began deliberations at 2:30 p.m. on whether to recommend the death penalty or life in prison without parole. On Friday, an Osage County District Court jury convicted Kahler of capital murder, four counts of first degree murder and one count of aggravated burglary, all tied to the Nov. 28, 2009, rampage in a Burlingame home.

Before deliberations Monday, defense attorney Amanda Vogelsberg read two notes to jurors from Kahler’s 12-year-old son.

“I do not want my dad to receive the death penalty because it would be hard on my grandparents,” the first note said.

The second note said, “I do not want my whole family gone.”

Defense attorney Tom Haney told jurors there were 12 mitigating circumstances that outweigh the aggravating circumstances. Kahler had no criminal history, he was operating under extreme mental and emotional stress, and he had a severe mental illness that impaired his ability to think and control his actions, Haney said.

Haney also noted the statement by Kahler’s son, the lone survivor of the family, who submitted two notes to the court, asking his father not be put to death.

“Do you have mercy for him?” Haney said, referring to Kahler’s son.

In Kahler’s case, prison would be worse for him than the death penalty, Haney said, noting his suicidal tendencies and a preference for being outdoors. Throughout the trial, witnesses testified about Kahler’s love of hunting, fishing and the outdoors.

Osage County attorney Brandon Jones asked jurors to think about the anguish the victims felt as they listened again to recordings of one of Kahler’s daughters screaming for help as her father walked through the home. In one recording, she was comforted by an Osage County Sheriff’s officer.

“I don’t want to die,” the daughter told Deputy Nathan Purling.

Jones told jurors the number of aggravating circumstances don’t have to outnumber the mitigating circumstances in order for them to impose the death penalty. Haney told jurors if any one of them found the aggravating circumstances didn’t outweigh the mitigating circumstances, there wouldn’t be a unanimous vote to impose the death penalty.

If the jury doesn’t make a unanimous decision, the judge will impose a life sentence without parole.

“In this state, we don’t kill the mentally ill,” Haney told the jurors.















Anne

[AnneTheBelgian]

http://www.columbiamissourian.com/stories/2011/08/29/photo-gallery-kahler-sentenced-death/

PHOTO GALLERY: Kahler sentenced to death

Monday, August 29, 2011 | 8:41 p.m. CDT; updated 12:32 p.m. CDT, Tuesday, August 30, 2011

A Kansas jury decided that James Kraig Kahler should be sentenced to death after he was found guilty of murder in the deaths of his estranged wife, her mother and his two teenage daughters on Nov. 28, 2009.

The prosecution and defense offered final arguments Monday before the jury reached its decision. The verdict in the penalty phase of the trial was announced at Osage County District Court in Lyndon, Kan.










Photos : 1. Chief Judge Phillip Fromme and assistant attorney general Amy Hanley (right) and Osage County Attorney Brandon Jones waited for jurors to come into the courtroom to hear arguments on Aug. 29 on whether to impose the death penalty or a life sentence without parole on capital murderer James Kraig Kahler.   ¦  THAD ALLTON/THE CAPITAL JOURNAL


             2. A handcuffed James Kraig Kahler was escorted from the Osage County Courthouse on Aug. 29 by deputies shortly after a jury decided to impose the death penalty on him.   ¦  THAD ALLTON/THE CAPITAL JOURNAL

 
            3. Osage County Attorney Brandon Jones numbers off the four victims as he urged jurors to impose the death penalty on capital murderer James Kraig Kahler in court on Aug. 29.   ¦  THAD ALLTON/THE CAPITAL JOURNAL













Anne

[JTiscool]

Aren't we waiting for the judge to formerly sentence him?

[AnneTheBelgian]

http://cjonline.com/news/2011-09-07/kahler-asks-court-appointed-attorneys#.TmfLjdSFAow

Kahler asks for court-appointed attorneys

Posted: September 7, 2011 - 2:30pm

By Steve Fry

THE CAPITAL-JOURNAL

James Kraig Kahler, the Meriden man convicted two weeks ago of killing four members of his  family at a Burlingame home on the Thanksgiving Day weekend in 2009, has applied to have his defense attorneys appointed by the judge to represent him in future court hearings.

Kahler, 48, was convicted of capital murder, four counts of first-degree murder and one count of aggravated burglary, on Aug. 25, and four days later, the Osage County District Court jury decided to recommend the death penalty.

Killed during Kahler's rampage through the home on  Nov. 28, 2009, were Karen Kahler, 44, Kraig Kahler's estranged wife; daughters Emily Kahler, 18, and Lauren Kahler, 16; and Dorothy Wight, 89, grandmother of Karen Kahler.

Kraig Kahler walked into the home of Wight, gunning down his wife, daughters and Wight. He allowed his son, Sean Kahler, then 10, to escape unharmed.

Kahler hired defense attorneys Tom  Haney and Amanda Vogelsberg to defend him. But Kahler's funds "are exhausted" through the cost of trial and the establishment of a trust account for Sean Kahler, now 12, court records said.

Kahler worked about 10 years as a utilities director for Weatherford, Texas, before retiring from there in 2008 to take the post of director of the Columbia (Mo.) Water and Light Department.

During the trial, there was evidence that his retirement income of $2,200 a month had been placed in the trust account for his son. That totals $26,400 a year.

Kahler can't pay anything toward his defense, doesn't own a home or land,  and doesn't receive any income. He listed a 1992 Ford Explorer sport utility vehicle valued at $500 as his only asset. During the three-week trial, jurors heard testimony the SUV was nicknamed the "Exploder" due to its mechanical problems.

Kahler listed child support of $100 a month. He listed himself as single and as having two dependents: himself and his son.

Kahler asked that Haney and Vogelsberg be appointed as his court-appointed attorneys.

The aggravating circumstances were that more than one person was killed, and the four victims were murdered in a “heinous, atrocious or cruel manner."

Haney told jurors there were 12 mitigating circumstances that outweighed the aggravating circumstances, including that Kahler had no criminal history, he was operating under extreme mental and emotional stress, and he had a severe mental illness impairing his ability to think and control his actions.

Kahler is to be formally  sentenced at 9:30 a.m. Oct. 11. At sentencing, Chief Judge Phillip Fromme will decide whether to accept the verdict.

According to Kansas law, Fromme must examine the jury verdict imposing the death sentence to determine whether the evidence supported the verdict. If it didn't, the judge would change Kahler's sentence to life in prison without parole.

















Anne

[AnneTheBelgian]

http://washingtonexaminer.com/news/2011/10/death-seen-likely-sentence-4-kan-killings

Sunday, October 9, 2011

Death seen as likely sentence in 4 Kan. killings

By: JOHN HANNA

10/09/11 2:30 PM

Associated Press

A man convicted in Kansas of killing his estranged wife and three other family members appears likely to be sentenced to death this week, but if he is, years would pass before a team of officers would escort him into the state's execution chamber and strap him to the gurney.

A jury in Osage County District Court took only two hours to conclude in August that James Kraig Kahler was guilty of capital murder and less than an hour to recommend lethal injection as his punishment. But the Kansas Supreme Court must automatically review his case, and in other capital cases, that process has postponed executions.

Kansas hasn't executed a convicted murder in the 17 years since it reinstated capital punishment in 1994, and there's a good chance it won't before marking the 50th anniversary of the state's last executions, by hanging, in June 1965.

-----

An AP Monday Focus

-----

The Sunflower State has a history of ambivalence toward the death penalty, abolishing it in 1907, only to reinstate it in 1935 after a spate of bloody robberies of Midwestern banks. After a U.S. Supreme Court decision invalidated the 1930s statute, supporters of capital punishment waited more than two decades for enactment of a new law.

"The justices and the people come out of that and look on the death penalty very carefully," said Richard Dieter, executive director of the Washington-based Death Penalty Information Center, which opposes capital punishment. "There's not quite the rush on executions."

A sentencing hearing for Kahler, 48, is scheduled for Tuesday morning before District Judge Phillip Fromme, who must decide whether the jury's recommendation for a death sentence is supported by the evidence. But, as defense attorney Thomas Haney noted, no Kansas trial court judge has rejected a jury's recommendation in a capital case since the law was reinstated.

Kahler, who goes by his middle name, is a former utilities director in Weatherford, Texas, and Columbia, Mo., moving back to Kansas to live on his parents' farm outside Topeka after losing the job in Missouri in 2009. According to testimony during Kahler's trial, his wife, Karen, was having a sexual relationship with a Weatherford, Texas, woman, and seeking a divorce. Kahler's attorneys contend he snapped mentally.

The victims were Karen Kahler, 44; her grandmother, Dorothy Wight, 89, and the Kahlers' daughters, Emily, 18, and Lauren, 16. A psychiatrist testified during Kraig Kahler's trial that he was upset with his daughters for siding with their mother and believed Wight had a duty to push Karen Kahler to stay in their marriage.

The shootings occurred the weekend after Thanksgiving 2009 at Wight's home outside Burlingame, about 30 miles southwest of Topeka. The Kahlers' son, Sean, then 10, was at the home but escaped without physical injury and testified that he saw his father shoot his mother. Law enforcement officers and emergency medical personnel said Wight and Lauren Kahler identified Kraig Kahler as the gunman before dying.

Michael Rushford, president and chief executive officer of the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation, a Sacramento, Calif., victims' rights group that supports capital punishment, said Kraig Kahler's case is "clear cut" enough that his appeals should move relatively quickly through state and federal courts, particularly because Congress limited federal courts' review of capital cases in 1996.

"It's a pretty simple case," Rushford said. "He can't say he wasn't there."

The record in Kansas capital cases since 1994 has varied.

A dozen men have been sentenced to die for their killings, but three have had those sentences overturned through the courts and are now serving life in prison. In a fourth case, the state Supreme Court must decide whether a capital murder defendant should be resentenced over questions about his attorney's work.

Gary Kleypas, convicted of raping and killing a Pittsburg State University student in 1996, has no execution date approaching. The court is considering issues about his death sentence for the third time, with attorneys still preparing legal briefs.

Legal briefs are still being prepared for six other men's cases, with their death sentences dating from November 2002 to March 2009. In May, the state Supreme Court heard the case of Scott Cheever, sentenced to die for the 2005 shooting of Greenwood County's sheriff during a drug raid, but it has yet to rule.

The Kansas attorney general's office declined to comment about the length of time involved in death penalty appeals or about Kahler's case, because he hasn't been sentenced.

But Rebecca Woodman, a state public defender who handles appeals in capital cases, said she doubts Kahler's case will move quickly. Defense attorneys have a greater burden in investigating their clients' cases on appeals that lawyers in non-capital cases, she said, making death penalty cases more complex.

"The state has to conduct the same type of review," she said. "It's just much more complicated than other murder cases."

And, even as he saw Kahler's case as straightforward, Rushford acknowledged that states' appellate courts can slow down the resolution of capital cases and delay executions, sometimes simply by giving attorneys years to finish filing legal briefs.

"The political environment in a state and the makeup of a supreme court can make a lot of difference," Rushford said.

Critics of capital punishment believe delays in resolving appeals can work in their favor, prompting states to consider whether the death penalty is worth keeping. The cost associated with appeals in capital cases was an issue for Kansas legislators in recent years, though bills to repeal the death penalty law failed in the state Senate in 2005, 2009 and 2010.

Dieter noted that New Jersey reinstated the death penalty in 1982, had no executions in 25 years and abolished capital punishment in 2007. New Mexico executed only one criminal in 30 years before abolishing capital punishment in 2009.

"It does sometimes add up, when states don't see it going anywhere," Dieter said.














Anne

[AnneTheBelgian]

http://washingtonexaminer.com/news/nation/2011/10/kansas-man-sentenced-death-killing-family

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Kansas man sentenced to death for killing family

By: JOHN MILBURN

10/11/11 11:35 AM

Associated Press

A judge sentenced a Kansas man to death Tuesday for fatally shooting his estranged wife, their two daughters and his wife's grandmother, then ordered him to stay in court and listen to his victims' relatives talk about the pain he caused them.

James Kraig Kahler was convicted in August in the Thanksgiving 2009 killings in Burlingame, about 30 miles southwest of Topeka. Kahler shot his 44-year-old wife Karen, her grandmother 89-year-old Dorothy Wight, and the Kahlers' two daughters, 18-year-old Emily and 16-year-old Lauren, as the couple struggled through a divorce.

A psychiatrist testified during Kahler's trial that he had been upset with his daughters for siding with their mother, who had instigated divorce, and that he believed Wight should have encouraged his wife to stay in their marriage. Karen Kahler had been having an affair with a woman from Weatherford, Texas.

At trial, Kahler's attorneys said he was unable to control his emotions and had been suffering from a deep depression when he went from room to room at Wight's home and shot the victims with an assault rifle.

Kahler's attorney asked Osage County Judge Phillip Fromme to allow his client to return to his jail cell before the victims' families read their statements but the judge rejected that request. The relatives' statements were tributes to the victims and did not name Kahler or mention how they felt about his sentence.

Karen Kahler's mother, Patricia Hetrick, was too frail to attend Tuesday's hearing, but said in a statement that was read on her behalf that she was upset her two granddaughters had been killed "just because they were guilty of loving their mom."

Kahler, who stared at walls and papers as the statements were read, declined to make a statement.

The Kahler's son, Sean, was present during the shooting rampage but escaped unscathed. Kahler's attorney, Thomas Haney, said Sean declined a request to appear in court Tuesday. The boy, who was 10 when his father shot the rest of family to death, testified that he did not want his father sentenced to death. Haney said the boy continued to believe his father should be spared.

As he was leaving the courtroom, Kahler, a former utilities director in Weatherford, Texas, and Columbia, Mo., told his parents he has lost everything and exhorted them to take care of his son.

Karen Kahler's sister, Lynn Denton, said the pain of losing her sister has never eased.

"I miss her every day, some days more than others," Denton told the hearing. "I still want to pick up the phone and call her. I hear the phone ring, I want to pick up the phone and say 'Hi sister.'"















Anne

[turboprinz]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGSoeLbzH7U