Supreme Court stays proceedings in Cheever case

TOPEKA—The Kansas Supreme Court this week stayed its proceedings in a death penalty case involving Scott D. Cheever pending the outcome of the United States Supreme Court's review of three cases that present a similar legal issue.

At the request of the Kansas attorney general, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to review Kansas Supreme Court decisions in death penalty cases involving Jonathan Carr, Reginald Carr, and Sidney Gleason. The U.S. Supreme Court will review whether failing to instruct jurors that a defendant's mitigating circumstances need not be proven beyond a reasonable doubt violates the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution requiring the penalties to be vacated and the defendant to be resentenced.

The penalty phase instructions in the Cheever case pending in state court present a similar legal issue, so the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in the Carr and Gleason cases could determine future proceedings in the Cheever case.

Both the prosecution and defense in the Cheever case agreed it was appropriate to stay that appeal pending resolution of the instruction issue by the U.S. Supreme Court in one or all of the cases pending before it.