Kansas high court considers death row inmate's appeal

(AP) — Attorneys for a Kansas death row inmate convicted of killing his estranged wife, their two daughters and his wife's grandmother pressed the state's highest court Friday to toss out his conviction, arguing the trial judge mistakenly tilted the proceedings against him.

The judge also appeared to limit prospective jurors from voicing their opinions during jury selection and seemed to tell jurors they could not pose open-court questions about witnesses or evidence during their deliberations, Carver-Allmond argued.

"The two sets of rules here (for the trial prosecution and defense) is really part of the problem," she said, before pointing the court to consider testimony about Kahler's questioned mental state at the time of the killings.

An attorney for the state, Kristafer Ailslieger, countered that "everything the trial court did is something that by law they're allowed to do," including allowing Kahler's prosecutor to interrupt the defense attorney during opening statements.