'Not a potted plant': Kansas AG's office defends work of quadruple murderer's attorney

Tom Haney provided "objectively reasonable performance" in his trial defense of quadruple murderer James Kraig Kahler, says the office of Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach.

"It is clear from the record that Kahler's attorney, Mr. Haney, was not a potted plant," says a court document filed Dec. 29 by Kris Ailslieger, deputy solicitor general for Kobach's office. "He was active throughout the voir dire (jury selection) process, seeking to safeguard Kahler's rights and select a fair and impartial jury."

The claims Kahler makes in his suit seeking to vacate his convictions and death sentence should all be denied without an evidentiary hearing, Ailslieger said in the response to that suit he filed Dec. 29.

Kahler's claims are "not supported by facts or law," said that 170-page document, which includes 85 pages of text and 85 pages of attachments.

Victims ranged in age from 16 to 89

Kahler's suit, which is part of a process permitted by state law, was filed last January in Osage County District Court by attorney Julia Spainhour, of the Topeka-based Kansas Capital Habeas Office.

The petition cites 14 reasons Kahler's convictions and/or death sentence should be overturned, with 12 saying he received ineffective legal representation during his trial and appeals process.

Kahler, 61, was sentenced to death in 2011 after being convicted of capital murder in the 2009 gunshot slayings of his estranged wife, their two daughters and his wife's grandmother at their home at Burlingame in Osage County.

Authorities said Kahler gunned down Karen Kahler, 44; Lauren Kahler, 16, and Emily Kahler, 18; and Dorothy Wight, 89, while letting his 10-year-old son, Sean Kahler, escape.

James Kraig Kahler alleged at his trial that he was too mentally ill at the time to be held legally responsible for the killings.

He was represented by defense attorneys Haney and Amanda Vogelsberg, according to court records.

The lawsuit petition alleges Kahler's legal counsel did an ineffective job of selecting the jury during the trial that resulted in his being convicted and sentenced to death. Kahler's death sentence was upheld by the Kansas Supreme Court in 2018 and the U.S. Supreme Court in 2020.

Kahler is an inmate being held under special management at El Dorado Correctional Facility, according to the website of the Kansas Department of Corrections.

No execution date for Kahler has been set, as he hasn't exhausted his legal options.

'Pure speculation piled upon more speculation'

Kahler's suit says his convictions should be vacated because his defense counsel ineffectively argued a motion seeking a change of venue to a county where residents were less familiar with the victims. That motion was denied.

To succeed on that claim, Ailslieger's response said, the law requires Kahler to establish that:

• His counsel's actions were so patently unreasonable that no competent attorney would have done them.

• If Kahler's counsel had taken the steps Kahler says he should have taken, including presenting a "venue study" and "an accounting of the negative and prejudicial media coverage," a change of venue would have been granted.

• And that reasonable probability exists that if the trial had been held in another county, the outcome would have been different.

"Ultimately, this claim hinges on pure speculation piled upon more speculation, and does not warrant an evidentiary hearing," Ailslieger wrote.

Suit says jury should have been sequestered

The trial court’s failure to sequester the jury that convicted Kahler generated instances of juror misconduct, which denied him a fair trial, Kahler's lawsuit petition said.

"The court did not enact limitations sufficient to prevent jurors from talking to each other about the evidence," it said. "Two seated jurors were a mother and her daughter and traveled to and from court proceedings in the same vehicle. Mr. Kahler is aware that one juror observed and overheard two jurors discussing and agreeing on Mr. Kahler’s guilt before the guilt phase evidence was concluded."

Ailslieger replied that Kahler's claim that the trial court erred by not sequestering jurors is a claim of "trial error," which could have — and should have — been raised during the appeals process.

That claim therefore is not allowed to be raised in Kahler's lawsuit and should be denied, Ailslieger wrote.

Kahler's son didn't want his father to die

Kahler's lawsuit petition said that after his son told prosecutors he didn't want his father to die because he didn't want to lose his whole family, prosecutors failed to reveal that to the defense until the trial's penalty phase.

The petition said defense counsel interviewed Kahler's son but acted ineffectively by failing to request a continuance to prepare his testimony to bolster the case for life without parole for Kahler.

Ailslieger replied that Kahler's attorneys handled the revelation of his son's statements in a reasonable manner by obtaining positive statements from the boy and sharing them with the jury.

"They got favorable information from him in front of the jury, without having to put him on the witness stand and subject him to cross-examination that could have further qualified or undermined the favorability of his statements," he wrote.

Contact Tim Hrenchir at threnchir@gannett.com or 785-213-5934.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Kansas AG's office asks judge to deny lawsuit by murderer James Kahler