Kansas Supreme Court rejects Kyle Flack’s murder, death penalty appeals
TOPEKA, Kan. — Kyle Flack, a man convicted of capital murder plus first and second-degree murder for killing four people in Franklin County, Kansas, in 2013, will stay on death row after the Kansas Supreme Court affirmed his convictions and sentencing Friday.
Kansas’ highest court had been considering whether Flack invoked his right to remain silent before making key statements that led to him being convicted in the murders of 21-year-old Olathe woman Kaylie Bailey and her 18-month-old daughter Lana, as well as Ottawa men Andrew Stout, 30, and Steven White, 31.
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A majority of the court rejected his right to remain silent argument after his defense team said his repeated pleas of, “Take me to jail! Take me to jail!” were clear indicators that he wanted to stop talking with officers.
“That is something that objectively reasonable officers would recognize as an invocation of these rights,” appellate defender Clayton Perkins previously argued to the court.
The majority ruled that Flack didn’t meet the standard of the Fifth Amendment that protects against self incrimination because neither he nor the officers clearly acknowledged he wanted to stop talking.
They also rejected his death penalty challenge, saying Section 1 of the Kansas Constitution Bill of Rights “right to life” provision shouldn’t be defined as “absolute.”
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Justice Evelyn Wilson dissented from the majority regarding Flack’s right to silence, saying she would reverse the first and second-degree murder convictions, vacate the death sentence and remand for a new trial. She said the court’s analysis penalized Flack for, “failing to utter the proper incantation – despite his repeated, clear requests that the detectives take him to jail.”
She concurred with court’s decision on upholding Flack’s capital murder conviction, citing overwhelming evidence in the killings of Kaylie and Lana Bailey.
Following the court’s decision, Flack will continue to be one of nine prisoners on Kansas death row. Kansas hasn’t executed a prisoner since hanging George York and James Latham in 1965.
A Franklin County jury convicted Flack in 2016 for shooting the four victims in April of 2013. The adults were found on a farm while the toddler’s body was found in a creek.
Even after Flack’s trial, it wasn’t clear what led to the shootings, which detectives believe happened over separate days. The defense argued that Flack, who was 28 at the time of the crimes and is now 36, suffered from a severe mental illness that caused him to hear voices throughout adulthood.
The Associated Press contributed to this story
