The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to review Scott Cheever’s case, leaving the capital murder conviction and death sentence to stand, according to Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt.
Cheever was convicted of shooting and killing Greenwood County Sheriff Matthew Samuels in 2005 in Hilltop, Kan. Cheever’s conviction and sentence was previously affirmed by the Kansas Supreme Court.
According to the attorney general’s office, the case now goes to the Kansas courts for more proceedings under the Kansas death penalty statute. Cheever has options to seek further judicial review through collateral proceedings although he was exhausted direct appeals.
The Kansas Supreme Court overturned Cheever’s conviction in 2012, citing a constitutional violation and ordered a new trial. Schmidt appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which in 2013 unanimously overturned the Kansas Supreme Court’s decision and sent it back for further proceedings. In 2016, the Kansas Supreme Court upheld Cheever’s conviction in a 6-1 ruling. Cheever has been incarcerated at Lansing Correctional Facility.
Cheever is the fourth death penalty case to exhaust direct appeals since the Kansas Legislature reinstated the death penalty in 1994, according to Schmidt. The other cases involved Sidney Gleason, Gary Kleypas and John Robinson.
Ten persons are under a death sentence in Kansas currently. Other cases that are in stages of direct appeals include Jonathan Carr, Reginald Carr, Justin Thurber, Craig Kahler, Frazier Glenn Miller and Kyle Flack. In an eleventh case, the defendant died in prison.