U.S. Supreme Court lets death penalty stand for man who murdered Kansas sheriff

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court is letting a death sentence stand for a southeastern Kansas man who fatally shot a sheriff during a 2005 drug raid.

The high court declined Monday to review Scott Cheever’s case a second time. Cheever faces lethal injection for killing Greenwood County Sheriff Matt Samuels as Samuels tried to serve a warrant at Cheever’s rural home about 75 miles northeast of Wichita.

Cheever acknowledged shooting Samuels, but his attorney argued Cheever was too high on methamphetamine for the crime to be premeditated.

The Kansas Supreme Court in 2012 ordered a new trial for Cheever because prosecutors used a court-ordered mental evaluation from a different trial against him. The U.S. Supreme Court reversed that decision in 2013.

The Kansas court then upheld Cheever’s death sentence last year.