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Remembering the victims of the most heinous of racial crimes. In the era of Black Lives Matter when, as the indefatigable Colin Flaherty terms it, “the greatest lie of our generation”—the Big Lie that black people “are relentless victims of relentless white racism, everywhere, always, that explains everything”—has reached a fever-pitch, we would be well-served to revisit an event that BLM and its apologists would undoubtedly prefer we not talk about. The event is actually not just a crime, but a series of crimes so grisly, so literally monstrous, that it has come to be called, “the Wichita Massacre,” or...

The Supreme Court restored death sentences Wednesday for three Kansas murderers by an 8-1 vote, undercutting predictions by some that a majority of the justices is ready to strike down capital punishment nationwide. Speaking in court, Justice Antonin Scalia described the "notorious Wichita Massacre" in which two brothers broke into a home, tortured five young men and women and then took them to a snowy field where they were "shot in the back of the head, execution-style." Amazingly, one young woman survived when a hair clip deflected a bullet, and she later testified against Reginald and Jonathan Carr. A jury...

The Kansas Supreme Court has overturned the death sentences of two brothers convicted of capital murder in the shooting deaths of four people whose bodies were found in a snow-covered Wichita soccer field in 2000. The state Supreme Court on Friday also struck down three of the four capital murder conviction each against Jonathan and Reginald Carr. But it upheld one capital murder conviction each. Their cases will return to Sedgwick County District Court for further hearings and a new sentencing. The court's majority overturned the death sentences because, it said, the presiding judge failed to have separate proceedings for...

The Star's Topeka correspondent TOPEKA - Kansas is one of only four states that offer no concealed weapons permits. Advocates of concealed weapons say they hope election-year politics may change that. As they have for years, pro-gun lawmakers are pushing a bill that would set up a permit process for residents who want to carry a concealed firearm. Similar measures have passed both the House of Representatives and the Senate in recent years, but have always met with a gubernatorial veto. This year, however, is a re-election year for Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, and proponents of the right-to-carry measure say the...

The husband of a slain Wichita cellist is suing the state, claiming it negligently paroled Reginald Carr, the man who would later murder his wife. Don Walenta filed the lawsuit Monday in Sedgwick County District Court, little more than three weeks after a jury sentenced Reginald Carr and his brother Jonathan to death. The Carrs were convicted of murdering cellist Ann Walenta and four others during a December 2000 crime spree. The complaint says that if the state had not mistakenly released Reginald Carr from parole, he would have been in jail the night Ann Walenta was shot. Walenta's...

State corrections officials figure eight to 12 years could pass before Reginald and Jonathan Carr receive lethal injections for a quadruple murder. In the meantime, the two brothers from Dodge City will live solitary, stark years in the maximum-security unit of El Dorado Correctional Facility. Last week, a Wichita jury sentenced them to die. To many people, their crimes were so cruel and unspeakable, any accommodation for them is too nice. Larry Heyka, father of Brad Heyka, one of four friends found shot to death in a snowy soccer field, would not comment on the prison conditions the Carrs...

Eight times Thursday, the court bailiff repeated the same sentence for Jonathan and Reginald Carr: death. For each of the four people who died kneeling before a pistol on Dec. 15, 2000, each brother received one sentence to die. Jurors wore solemn or pained expressions as bailiff Maria Marquez read their decision, which they returned shortly after 5 p.m., following seven hours of deliberations. One woman in the jury box stiffened her lips and held hands with an alternate juror sitting beside her. The woman who survived the shooting in the snowy soccer field at K-96 and Greenwich Road,...

Reginald and Johnathan Carr were both sentenced to death for four murders in Wichita in December 200.The jury in the Carr capital murder trial, which last week convicted the two men of the murders and a long list of other crimes agreed that both men should be executed for the capital murders.The two will be sentenced by Judge Paul Clark tomorrow on the remaining charges.

Breaking News: [5:45pm] Jury recommends death sentence for each of the Capital Murder charges - After deliberating for the day, the Carr Brothers jury have given their recommendation for sentencing.

Today, Reginald Carr Jr. will spend his 25th birthday waiting for a jury to decide whether he and his younger brother, Jonathan, should die for the murders of four people. As part of the penalty phase of the brothers' trial, jurors heard testimony from witnesses, which lasted a week, followed by Wednesday's closing arguments. The jury decided to begin sentencing deliberations this morning. Sedgwick County District Attorney Nola Foulston spoke softly and deliberately as she began her closing for the jury. But her voice rose, cracked and filled with emotion as she talked about the robbery and rape of...

WICHITA -- A clinical psychologist testified that Jonathan Carr told him Tuesday that he had smoked the hallucinogenic drug PCP in the hour before a home invasion that ended with four murders. The comments to psychologist Mark Cunningham came just as testimony resumed in the penalty phase of Carr's capital murder trial in Sedgwick County District Court. Carr and his brother Reginald Carr were convicted last week on murder, robbery and sex crimes charges stemming from a nine-day rampage in December 2000. A total of five people were killed. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty. Cunningham said Carr also...

Guilty... guilty... guilty... guilty.... Ninety-three times the jury answered the charges against Reginald and Jonathan Carr. The verdicts resolved a weeklong crime spree that had turned nastier than anyone could imagine, culminating with four people shot to death Dec. 15, 2000. One woman survived to tell of a night of terror, rape and robbery that made a city cringe. But the jury couldn't answer a question that still haunted Wichita: What kind of people would do this? This past week, as the Dodge City brothers pleaded for their lives in the penalty phase of their capital murder trial, family...

A neuropsychologist who examined Reginald Carr testified Friday that brain damage, psychological problems, alcohol and drugs all could have come into play the night he and his brother terrorized, robbed, raped and shot five people execution style in a snowy soccer complex Dec 15, 2000. "Reggie's brain is geared for not only bad behavior, but terrible behavior," said Mitchel Woltersdorf, who specializes in brain-disorderpsychology. He testified in the penalty phase of Reginald and Jonathan Carr's trial. They both face the death penalty for the shootings, which left four people dead. A psychologist who examined Jonathan Carr is expected to...

Two black-faced dummies hanging by nooses in a Wichita front yard -- one resident's statement against two men convicted of a killing spree -- does not constitute a hate crime, police said Friday. "As disturbing as it may be to our community, it does not rise to the level of a crime," Deputy Police Chief Robert Lee said at a news conference. Only hours earlier, about a dozen black activists held another news conference in front of the Sedgwick County Courthouse to demand that authorities investigate the yard display as a racially motivated crime. Especially for black people, they...

WICHITA -- A forensic psychologist testified Thursday that Reginald Carr began having sexual interaction with girls at age 6 and that he was devastated when his father abandoned the family. "Father abandonment, any parent abandonment, is a major risk factor across every study and textbook you wanted to read," psychologist Thomas Reidy said. "In this instance, Mr. Carr had a strong positive feeling about his father." Reidy's testimony came on the third day of the penalty phase of Reginald and Jonathan Carr's capital murder trial. The brothers were convicted Monday on murder, robbery and sex crimes charges stemming from...

Here is a story of two trials and how they were covered in the news. Or not covered. You tell me what it says about the media's twisted values. The first trial was held in Beverly Hills. The accused was Hollywood starlet Winona Ryder, charged with shoplifting at a Saks Fifth Avenue store. A Nexis search turned up more than 500 stories on the trial published over the past week alone. Television, news and radio reporters from around the world breathlessly described Ryder's daily court attire -- her hairbands, her coatdresses, her shoes, her bra straps, her lipstick. We...

Juanita Culver found it hard to believe that the Jonathan Carr she knew could be facing the death penalty for a crime rampage that included multiple rapes, robberies and murders. But District Attorney Nola Foulston wanted to clarify the crimes for the 73-year-old woman from Dodge City, who testified Wednesday in the penalty phase of Jonathan and Reginald Carr's capital murder trial. Foulston showed Culver color crime-scene photos from a soccer field where four people were shot to death on Dec. 15, 2000, and asked: Did that change her mind? "No, it doesn't.... I see that stuff, but it's...

WICHITA -- The mother of two brothers convicted of killing five people pleaded with jurors Tuesday to spare the men's lives, saying her children are pretty good and what happened two years ago was a horrible mistake. "I know other families out there are probably hating me to death. I am sorry for them, but spare my children. I love them just as much as you would love your children. I believe there is good in them. There is just something went wrong along the way," Janice Harding testified. Harding said her job in Dodge City has kept her...

Today, Jonathan and Reginald Carr begin fighting for their lives. A jury Monday found the brothers guilty of killing four Wichita residents on Dec. 15, 2000. Now, the jury must decide whether to sentence the brothers to death. Judge Paul Clark ordered the penalty phase of the trial to begin this morning. "Justice has been served -- and it is long awaited," Chief Deputy District Attorney Kim Parker said. Jurors found Reginald Carr, 24, guilty of all 50 crimes charged against him, including the capital murders of Dec. 15, the first-degree murder of Ann Walenta four days earlier and...

<p>WICHITA, Kan. — Brothers Reginald and Jonathan Carr were found guilty Monday of four counts of capital murder for the execution-style killing of four friends two years ago in a snow-covered soccer field.</p> <p>Reginald Carr, 24, and Jonathan Carr, 22, were convicted for the Dec. 15, 2000, deaths of Aaron Sander, 29; Brad Heyka, 27; Jason Befort, 26; and Heather Muller, 25.</p>