Scott Cheever: Kansas Court Maintains Death Sentence Of Man Charged With Killing Sheriff

The death sentence of Scott Cheever, who received a capital punishment sentence in 2007 for murdering Greenwood County Sheriff Matt Samuels, has been upheld by the Kansas Supreme Court on Friday.

Cheever shot and killed Samuels in January 2005 as the sheriff was attempting to serve an arrest warrant to him at a Hilltop property, the Wichita Eagle reported. The arrest warrant was issued after Cheever reportedly stole guns from this stepfather and failed to report to his parole officer.

During his trial, Scott Cheever, 34, told the court that he had been cooking and injecting methamphetamine with the owners of the Hilltop residence when Samuels arrived to arrest him, according to The Emporia Gazette. Cheever shot Samuels on the staircase as he was heading up to find him in a methamphetamine laboratory. He also fired on deputies who attempted to help the sheriff.

Cheever’s sentence was overturned by the Kansas Supreme Court in 2012 after it ruled that prosecutors had violated the suspect’s right against self-incrimination during his trial. The court argued that by admitting the testimony of government psychiatrist Michael Welner, who examined Cheever, the Greenwood County District Court had violated the suspect’s rights under the Fifth Amendment.

Cheever’s legal defense team had sought to prove that since he was intoxicated on methamphetamine at the time he killed Samuels, his judgment was impaired. Welner’s testimony to the court contradicted the claims that Cheever’s judgment was affected when he shot Samuels. He told the court that Cheever made the “decision to shoot,” the Wichita Eagle reported.

In 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against the Kansas Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Cheever’s death sentence. The U.S. Supreme Court stated that Welner’s testimony did not violate Cheever’s rights, according to the Topeka Capital-Journal. Although the U.S. Supreme Court admitted that there were several errors in the way Scott Cheever’s initial sentencing proceeding was handled, the court stated that it had “little if any effect” on the ruling, AP reported.

“Having taken the stand, Cheever opened himself to rebuttal testimony just as he opened himself to cross-examination concerning both the substance of his testimony and his credibility as a witness,” Justice Eric Rosen wrote in the court’s 6-1 ruling issued on Friday. “Much of Welner’s testimony concerning details of the crimes, and Cheever’s actions constituting them, was responsive to Cheever’s own testimony.”

The lone dissenting judge in the case, Justice Lee Johnson, argued against sentencing Cheever to death.

“Cheever’s death sentence is not the product of an informed decision by a jury of his peers,” Johnson, who has also opposed the death penalty in other cases, argued.

Scott Cheever is the second person to be sentenced to death under Kansas’ 1994 capital punishment law. Serial killer John E. Robinson Sr. was sentenced to death under the same law in November last year, according to the Wichita Eagle.

While Cheever’s death sentence has been upheld by the court, it is unclear if the sentence would actually be carried out. In Kansas, the death penalty has been abolished and reinstated several times.

Despite the fact that up to 10 convicts have been sentenced to face capital punishment in Kansas, the last time that the death sentence was carried out in the state was more than 50 years ago by hanging, AP reported. If the state is to execute any of these inmates, it would be by lethal injection.

We honor the life of Greenwood Co Sheriff Matt Samuels, shot & killed 11 yrs ago. Thoughts w his family & friends. pic.twitter.com/0uo9hgyVl8

— KS Highway Patrol (@kshighwaypatrol) January 19, 2016

The death of Sheriff Samuels was widely mourned in Kansas. It even led to a law to curb access to over-the-counter pills used to make methamphetamine. The law, which is named the Sheriff Matt Samuels Act, was passed a few months after the death of the Sheriff in 2005.

Scott Cheever is incarcerated at the Lansing Correctional Facility.

[Photo by David Doemland/The Emporia Gazette Pool/AP Images]