A jury in early September convicted Frazier Glenn Cross, 74, a
former senior member of the Ku Klux Klan, of the murders and
recommended that he be put to death. He also was convicted of three
counts of attempted murder for shooting at three other people.
The jury found Cross guilty of killing Reat Underwood, 14, and his
grandfather, William Corporon, 69, outside the Jewish Community
Center of Greater Kansas City, and Terri LaManno, 53, outside a
Jewish retirement home, both in Overland Park, Kansas.
Cross admitted during the trial that he committed the April 13, 2014
killings and said he had wanted to kill as many Jews as he could.
None of those killed were Jewish.
Cross, representing himself, was defiant throughout the trial. He
gave a Nazi salute to the jury, and declared "Death to the Jews" at
the end of his closing statement.
Cross, also known as Glenn Miller, clashed repeatedly at the trial
with Johnson County District Court Judge Thomas Kelly Ryan and was
removed from the courtroom at times.
Ryan will consider sentencing at a morning hearing on Tuesday.
Prosecutors indicated that several people would like to speak before
Ryan passes sentence, said Lisa Taylor, spokeswoman for the court.
It is unclear whether Cross will testify, she said.
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At the end of his closing statement at the trial, Cross dared jurors
to give him the death penalty. Several relatives of the murder
victims sat in the front rows of the courtroom when the jury
announced its verdict at the trial.
Kansas restored the death penalty in 1994, but no one has been
executed in the state since 1965. Nine people are now awaiting
execution, according to the Kansas Department of Corrections.
(Reporting by Kevin Murphy in Kansas City; Editing by Mary
Wisniewski and Chris Reese)
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