Elms's Death Sentence Gone, Now Sentenced to Hard 40

On November 20, 2004, Stanley Elms, convicted of the 1998 rape and murder of Regina Gray, was re-sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole for 40 years. Elms was originally sentenced to die and spent the intervening years on death row, but his sentenced was affected by the Kansas Supreme Court’s ruling in the Kleypas case which would have called for a re-sentencing trial if his conviction were upheld.

The new sentence resulted from an agreement with the Sedgwick County District Attorney’s office to drop the death penalty if Elms would not pursue an appeal accusing prosecutors of misconduct during the case. Prosecutor Kim Parker said her office agreed to the new sentence knowing that the earlier case [Kleypas] still hadn’t been decided and that appeals could take many more years. “The agreement is about finality, and finality only,” she said, denying media suggestions that her office wanted to hide prosecutorial misconduct.