Victims of the State
KAG - KEV

Name Index

Herman Kaglik, age 35, was convicted of raping his 37-year-old niece due to her testimony. He was sentenced to four years in prison. After he had served a year of prison the niece then charged him with additional rapes. Kaglik was convicted of the additional rapes and sentenced to an additional six years prison. In 1996, DNA tests excluded him as a possible assailant of his niece. In 2000, he was awarded $1.1 million in compensation for his two wrongful convictions.  (Ottawa Citizen)  [1/07]

Jonathan Kaled - See New Baltimore Three

Daniel Kamacho was convicted of the murder of Deputy Sheriff Fred T. Guiol. Guiol attended a movie with a friend, Miss Pearl Rattenbury, and drove her to her home at 1117 Elden Ave. Before Rattenbury could step out of the car, a young man armed with a gun wrenched open the car door and demanded the occupants hand over their money. When Guiol reached for his gun, the man shot Guiol dead and ran off.
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Edward Frank Kanieski was convicted of murdering tavern owner Clara Bates. Bates, 76, was found strangled and bludgeoned to death in her living quarters at her bar in Wisconsin Rapids. Kanieski, then 33, was one of two men who found Bates two days after she was last seen alive. Kanieski had been been an irregular customer at her bar. He had once told Bates a false story about being an aviator. When Bates expressed interest in going to Iowa some months in the future, Kanieski had offered to fly her there. Later he had a fall outside a funeral home, for which his head was bandaged. Using the bandage as evidence, he told Bates he had a plane accident and could no longer take her. Kanieski initially lied about being at Bates's bar the night of her murder. While Kanieski was there, she left other patrons to speak with him for about 15 minutes. Kanieski left before closing. Bates subsequently closed her bar early for some unspecified reason, possibly because she planned to meet with her murderer. Exiting patrons reportedly saw Kanieski's car by the side of the road and he admitted he was parked by the side of the road.
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Darlene Edwards, 43, Frank Sheppard, 46, Earl “Skip” Sheppard, 37, Bryan Sheppard, 26, and Richard Brown, 26, all Native Americans, were convicted of setting a fire that caused an explosion and killed six firefighters. The fire occurred at a site associated with the construction of a ten-mile road. Two trailers on the site contained 50,000 pounds of construction explosives. The explosion had 5 times the impact of the Oklahoma City bomb, evaporated a fire department pumper, and was heard 45 miles away. As late as 1995, ATF agents said on the TV show Unsolved Mysteries that the fire was set by organized labor to teach the general contractor a lesson for using non-union labor. But the demand for closure and $50,000 reward money led police and prison snitches to finger five indigent Native Americans who had nothing to do with organized labor. (Crime Magazine: Part 1 Part 2) (KC Fire Fighters Case)  [9/05]

Entre Nax Karage was convicted of murdering his 14-year-old Cambodian girlfriend, Nary Na. Na was last seen at the Minyard's grocery store at Garland and Peavy roads, seven hours before her fully clothed body was found in a ravine behind the Casa Linda Shopping Center. DNA test results at the time of the trial did not match Karage, but this was consistent with the prosecutor's theory that Karage had found his girlfriend with another man and killed her in a jealous rage. A review of trial transcripts and witness statements reveals that Karage's conviction rested solely on this speculated motive. There was no other evidence. In 2004, DNA test results were run through a federal database and were found to match Keith Jordan, a man convicted of a similar crime. Gov. Rick Perry pardoned Karage in 2005.  (IP)

After he allegedly confessed, Ahmad Kassim was convicted of first-degree manslaughter in connection with the stabbing death of Aji Hirabi Hussain. The NY Court of Appeals reversed Kassim's conviction in 1965. It found that an assistant district attorney had misinterpreted Kassim's broken English and had actually dictated Kassim's “confession” to a transcriber.  (Oswego Palladium-Times)  [1/07]

Robert Justin Kaupp was convicted of murder and sentenced to 55 years of imprisonment. On Jan. 13, 1999, 14-year-old Destiny Thetford disappeared from her home in suburban Houston. Kaupp, 17, was a close friend of Nicholas Thetford, Destiny's 19-year-old half-brother. Kaupp went with the family to report Destiny missing. He later helped pass out flyers in the neighborhood and joined in searches for her.

Police later learned that Nicholas had a sexual relationship with his half-sister and he and Kaupp were together on the day Destiny disappeared. On Jan. 26, police questioned Kaupp and gave him a lie detector test which he passed. Kaupp was cooperative and police let him go. Nicholas was also questioned and given lie detector tests, which he failed three times. Eventually Nicholas told police that he was angry that Destiny ended their relationship and that he stabbed her to death and placed her body in a drainage ditch. He also implicated Kaupp in the stabbing and the hiding of the body.

Police did not seek to obtain a formal arrest warrant for Kaupp, as they did not believe that they had probable cause for one. Instead, using Nicholas's statements as evidence, they sought a pocket arrest warrant from the district attorney's office, but it was denied. Nevertheless, police behaved as though they had a warrant and six police cars arrived at Kaupp's home at 3 a.m. on Jan. 27. After Kaupp's father allowed officers entry, they awoke Kaupp with a flashlight. A detective identified himself and told Kaupp, “We need to go and talk.” To which Kaupp replied, “Okay.” Police then placed handcuffs on Kaupp and led him, shoeless and dressed only in boxer shorts and a T-shirt, out of his house and into a patrol car. No evidence indicated that Kaupp was told that he was free to decline to go with the officers.

At the police station Kaupp denied any involvement in the victim's disappearance, but 10 or 15 minutes into his interrogation, after being told of the brother's confession, he admitted having some part in the crime. He did not, however, acknowledge causing the fatal wound or confess to murder, for which he was later indicted.

In 2003 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Kaupp's confession had been coerced as it was the product of an illegal arrest. A Texas Court of Appeals then overturned his conviction. Since his alleged confession could not be used against him at a retrial, the charges against Kaupp were dropped.  (U.S. Supreme Court) (Court of Appeals)  [2/11]

David Keaton - See Quincy Five

Aoki Keiko - See Tatsuhiro & Keiko

Ronald Keine - See Albuquerque Four

Billy Kelley was convicted of the murder of Charles Von Maxcy and is awaiting execution. In 1967, a jury convicted Boston mobster John Sweet, the secret lover of Maxcy's wife, Irene, for the murder after Irene testified against him. However, Sweet was released from prison a year later after Irene admitted having an affair with the lead detective in the case.

By 1981, Sweet was facing a hefty prison time for running theft and fraud rings in Massachusetts. To save himself, he offered to name the hit men in the Von Maxcy murder in exchange for immunity. One was dead; the other, he said, was Kelley. At Kelley's second trial – the first ended in mistrial – the prosecutor falsely informed the jury that Sweet had nothing to gain by his testimony. In 2002, a U.S. district court overturned Kelley's conviction. Kelley could not be retried because Sweet had died in 1989. However, a U.S. circuit court reinstated the conviction. A petition to overturn the circuit court's ruling was sent to the U.S. Supreme Court in March 2005.  (Miami Herald) (Boston Globe) (Oranous) (90) (92) (9/02) (12/02) (04) (07) (09)  [7/05]

William M. Kelly, who has a 69 IQ, confessed and pleaded guilty to murdering Jeanette D. Thomas, 25, of Hall Manor, whose body was found in a Swatara Twp. landfill. Later, a suspected serial killer, Joseph D. Miller, led investigators to the same landfill where the bodies of two other women were found. Because they were beaten and covered up in the same manner as Thomas, authorities believe Miller had murdered Thomas. Kelly was freed in 1993.  (Patriot-News)  [9/05]

Sandra Kemper confessed to starting a house fire that killed her 15-year-old son after she was told that she failed a lie detector test. The defense argued the confession was coerced. The trial judge allowed evidence of the lie detector test into the trial. The defense argued that it showed an 88 percent probability she was telling the truth. The judge then declared a mistrial because he changed his mind about the admissibility of the test. In 2006, the Missouri Supreme Court ruled that Kemper cannot be retried, as a retrial would violate the law against double jeopardy.  (Appeal)  [9/06]

Hamp Kendall and John Vickers were convicted of the murder of Lawrence Nelson, 25. Nelson disappeared from his rooming house in Lenoir and was found dead 10 weeks later. Kendall was Nelson's roommate and Vickers was Kendall's close friend. Both men had not gone to work on the day that Nelson disappeared. At trial, 15-year-old Omey Greer (aka Omah Grier) testified that the defendants had given her money to lure Nelson to a location in the mountains that was four to five miles from Lenoir. After luring Nelson, Greer said she ran away, but heard a shot fired.

Following the convictions, police arrested Sam Green and his cousin Omey Greer for the murders. Both were acquitted by a jury at trial. In 1916 an investigation conducted by Governor Bickett found that despite his acquittal, Green had murdered Nelson and framed Kendall and Vickers. The Governor issued an unconditional pardon to the two men. Five years later, Green had a coffin built for himself. When it was done, he confessed he had murdered Nelson and then committed suicide.

Three decades after his pardon, Kendall complained in a letter to the state governor that he was being slandered by Nelson's tombstone in Lenoir cemetery which stated Nelson was “murdered and robbed by Hamp Kendall and John Vickers on September 25, 1906.” The governor referred the matter to the Caldwell County board of commissioners, but they were unable to take action as state law made it a misdemeanor to molest a tombstone. However, in 1949, as a favor to Kendall, the state general assembly passed a law making it illegal to erect or maintain a tombstone which charges anyone with a crime. Nelson's tombstone was subsequently torn down.  (Archives) (The Innocents)  [7/09]

Clyde Kennard, a black man, was convicted of burglary charges for his repeated efforts to enroll in the segregated Mississippi Southern College (later renamed the University of Southern Mississippi). He had previously been convicted in 1959 on trumped up charges of reckless driving and having alcohol in his vehicle. However, that conviction only carried a $600 fine with no jail time. He ignored that warning.

For his burglary conviction, Kennard was sentenced to seven years of hard labor for participating in the theft of $25 worth of chicken feed. Due to failing health, Kennard was granted clemency in 1963, but died six months later. In 2005, three Lincolnshire, Illinois high school students spent more than six months documenting and uncovering new evidence that Kennard was convicted on trumped up charges. Kennard's accuser at trial signed a sworn affidavit exonerating him. On May 4, 2006, Governor Barbour rejected a posthumous pardon request for Kennard, although he recognized him as innocent. On May 17, a Forrest County judge vacated Kennard's convictions and declared him innocent. Kennard's 1959 conviction had been vacated by the Mississippi Supreme Court in 1961.  (JD#1) (JD#2) (FJDB)  [2/07]

“Timothy [John] Kennedy was wrongly convicted in 1997 of the 1991 murder of 15-year-old Jennifer Carpenter and her 37-year-old boyfriend, Steve Staskiewicz. Kennedy was sentenced to life in prison. Touch DNA testing unavailable at the time of Kennedy's trial excluded him as the assailant, and Kennedy filed a motion for a new trial based on the new evidence and other exculpatory evidence the prosecution didn't disclose prior to his trial. On April 21, 2009 El Paso County District Judge Thomas Kane, who presided at Kennedy's original trial, overturned Kennedy's convictions and life sentences, citing flawed evidence, prosecutors' failure to turn over evidence to the defense, and a lack of DNA evidence. Among the new evidence was the comparative bullet lead analysis relied on by the prosecution that is now discredited as junk science. On May 29, 2009 Kennedy was released on $250,000 bail.” – FJDB

Henry Vincent Keogh was convicted of the murder of his 29-year-old fiancée, Anna-Jane Cheney. Cheney was found dead in the bathtub of the home that the two shared on Homes Ave. in Magill, an Adelaide suburb. On the day of her death, Cheney finished work and met Keogh in a local hotel where the two had wine and potato wedges. Both of them went home to Anna's house but drove there in separate cars. Cheney then took her dog to her sister-in-law's house and the two women walked their dogs in a local park. After Cheney returned home, Keogh went to visit his mother. Keogh returned home around 9:30 p.m. and found Cheney slumped in her bathtub with her face underwater. He claimed he tried to resuscitate her, but neither he nor paramedics were successful. Cheney's blood alcohol level was later determined to be .08%, a moderate level of intoxication.
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Dr. Jack Kevorkian was convicted of murdering 52-year-old Thomas Youk. Youk was terminally ill and suffered from Lou Gehrig's disease. Youk wanted to commit suicide as a means to end his suffering and enlisted the aid of physician Kevorkian to ensure that it was done right. Kevorkian videotaped Youk's consent to his assistance and the assisted suicide. Kevorkian aired the tape to a national audience on the 60 Minutes TV show. Physicians reportedly assist the terminally ill end their lives all the time and they are not even investigated, but Kevorkian's crime was to document his assistance. Kevorkian was paroled in June 2007.  [10/05]