Kansas Supreme Court issues decision in Scott Cheever death penalty case

TOPEKA—The Kansas Supreme Court issued its decision today in the appeal of Scott D. Cheever, affirming his capital murder conviction and death sentence.

A jury in Greenwood County convicted Cheever of one count of capital murder for the death of Sheriff Matthew Samuels, four counts of attempted capital murder for firing at other law enforcement officers, criminal possession of a firearm, and manufacture of methamphetamine. On appeal, Cheever challenged his convictions of capital murder and attempted capital murder and also challenged his death sentence.

In an opinion written by Justice Eric S. Rosen, the court rejected Cheever's two guilt-phase error claims. Turning to the penalty-phase proceeding, the court identified four errors:

• the trial court's improper but factual comment on the role of the record on appeal;

• the failure of the instructions to require the jury to find Cheever was over 18 years old at the time of the crime;

• the trial court's failure to instruct the jury that mitigating circumstances need not be proven beyond a reasonable doubt; and

• the prosecutor's improper comment on the influence of methamphetamine as a mitigator.

The court concluded that none of these errors, when considered individually, or collectively with any of the others, required the court to vacate Cheever's death sentence. The court upheld Cheever's convictions and death sentence.

Justice Lee A. Johnson dissented on two issues. First, Justice Johnson reiterated his belief that the death penalty violates the prohibition against cruel or unusual punishment in § 9 of the Kansas Constitution Bill of Rights—a view he explained at length in State v. Robinson, 303 Kan. 11, 357, 363 P.3d 875 (2005) (Johnson, J., dissenting). Second, he departed from the majority's view that the mitigating circumstances instructional error was harmless. Justice Johnson would have vacated Cheever's sentence and remanded.