Death Row Inmate's Claim Rejected

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By The Eagle Topeka

Published: 12/12/2005

Kansas death row inmate Jonathan Carr received little sympathy last week when his claim for $499 against the state went before a legislative committee. The panel rejected his claim, and the $52 that the Department of Corrections recommended be paid due to a mistake by one of its officers.
Carr filed the claim Aug. 16 for an incident that occurred Oct. 1, 2004. He says -- and the department concedes --that an officer escorting inmates to and from showers put another inmate into Carr's cell.
That inmate, Carr claims, trashed his cell, destroying clothes, food, personal hygiene products, two books of stamps, a hot pot and his copies of three law books: Black's Law Dictionary ($59.95), Kansas Statutes, Annotated ($40) and Kansas Court Rules and Procedures ($37.60).
The big-ticket item was eye glasses. Carr submitted a $266 bill for an eye exam, frames, lenses and scratch-resistant coating. Corrections offered to provide $52 state-issued glasses.
Not one dime, said the Special Committee on Claims Against the State, which rejected Carr's claim on a voice vote.
"The heinousness of his crimes, the lack of remorse at his sentencing -- I don't think he could ever repay his debt to society," said Rep. Dale Swenson, R-Wichita.
Sen. Phil Journey, R-Haysville, chairman of the committee, said it was "certainly a difficult situation because of the nature of the crime."
Carr and his brother, Reginald, were convicted of killing Jason Befort, Brad Heyka, Aaron Sander and Heather Muller in a snowy northeast Wichita soccer field on Dec. 15, 2000.
A Sedgwick County jury sentenced both Carrs to death on Nov. 14, 2002. Their appeal is pending.
Attorney General Phill Kline will argue before the U.S. Supreme Court that the state's death penalty law should be upheld. The Kansas Supreme Court overturned it a year ago.

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