Free Republic

STATEMENT FROM MARK BEFORT (JASON'S BROTHER)My name is Mark Befort, and I'm going to represent the Befort family.... I would like to start out on Dec 15. My sister was contacted early in the morning that day, devastated by this news, the loss of Jason, her brother, her friend. She then called me, gave me the news. And for me, the hardest thing I've ever had to do in my life was to go over and wake my parents up and give them that news. My dad was a veteran of this country, in the Marines.... This took the life...

A forensic psychologist probing the mind of Reginald Carr said Thursday that he found it filled with memories of incest, clouded by drug abuse, and haunted by anger and aggression. What Thomas Reidy said he recently learned about Reginald Carr and his family fits profiles of violent behavior developed by the U.S. Department of Justice, the FBI and the surgeon general. Testifying during the penalty phase of Reginald and Jonathan Carr's capital murder trial, Reidy said that of the list of risks that may lead to criminal behavior, the Carr family experienced nearly all of them. Prosecutors spent hours of...

Reginald Carr watches as the jury is polled on their verdict in his murder trial, Monday, Nov. 4, 2002, in Wichita, Kan. Reginald, along with his brother, Jonathan, were found guilty of four counts of capital murder for the execution-style killing of four people two years ago in a soccer field. (AP Photo/Dave Williams, POOL) WICHITA, Kan. (AP) - Defense attorneys pleaded with jurors Tuesday to show mercy on two brothers who were convicted of five killings, including a quadruple murder of friends who were forced to engage in sex acts before each was shot in the head. Reginald Carr,...

A front-yard display of the Carr brothers hanged in effigy has been removed after some Wichitans found it racially offensive. For several days, two dummies -- each with a dark face and a noose around its neck -- hung from trees in the front yard of a west Wichita house. A sign beneath the dummies, with arrows pointing to them, said "Carr Bros," referring to the two Dodge City siblings found guilty Monday of capital murder in a Wichita killing spree. The Carrs are black and their victims were white, but prosecutors say robbery -- not race -- was the...

Let's avoid offensive racial overtones in Carr trial Add us to the list of people offended by a report of the Carr brothers being hanged in effigy -- not just because it's a tasteless prank that trivializes the death penalty and the tragedy of this case for all involved. More offensive by far is how this stunt injected inflammatory racial overtones into a case in which race played no role. A homeowner in west Wichita recently erected a display on his front yard showing two dummies -- in black face -- hanging by nooses from trees. A sign below the...

Posted on Wed, Oct. 09, 2002 Survivor's testimony horrifies courtroom The woman who survived the quadruple homicide in 2000 takes the stand in the second day of testimony in the Carr brothers trial. More photos Dave Williams/The Wichita Eagle Crime Scene Investigator Kevin Brasser displays the keys her collected from a victims car during day two of the Jonathan and Reginald Carr trial in Sedgwick County District Court. Gruesome crime scene photos and chilling testimony Tuesday from the lone survivor of a quadruple homicide nearly two years ago created a disturbing second day of state's testimony in the capital murder...