A Kansas jury was unable to succeed in a unanimous choice after deliberating for six days over whether or not Dana Chandler murdered her ex-husband and his fiancée, ending the newest chapter in a 20-year authorized saga. The choose instructed the jury that she knew they tried their finest and thanked them for his or her service.
The courtroom has scheduled a standing listening to for September 29. It's not clear whether or not Chandler will probably be tried once more. The protection workforce for Chandler departed the courthouse with out remark.
Dana Chandler's earlier conviction for the 2002 killings of Mike Sisco and Karen Harkness, who had been discovered gunned down in Harkness' Topeka dwelling, was overturned in 2018 by the Kansas Supreme Courtroom.
Throughout the brand new trial this month, the prosecution introduced a case centered on circumstantial proof, arguing "jealousy, rage and obsession" led Chandler to kill. The prosecution stated there have been no indicators of compelled entrance or housebreaking and argued that for years Dana Chandler stalked Mike Sisco. Deputy DA Charles Kitt acknowledged that by means of the police investigation, "they've realized there's one individual that has motive to have dedicated these crimes. And that was Dana Chandler."
Chandler's protection put forth allegations of police bias and incompetence, which they summed up as tunnel imaginative and prescient, missed alternatives and failure to adequately take a look at the restricted forensic proof. And so they contended that no matter bodily proof existed excluded Chandler. Protection lawyer Tom Bathtub acknowledged, "the state had no proof, no proof in anyway that positioned Dana Chandler in Karen Harkness' dwelling, within the metropolis of Topeka, or within the state of Kansas."
Greater than 60 witnesses had been known as throughout the four-week trial, together with dozens of consultants and relations of the victims. Prosecutors on Aug. 24 known as a shock witness, a former neighbor of Harkness, who testified that she remembered seeing Chandler close to the Harkness dwelling the evening of the homicide, after listening to gun photographs. Chandler's protection countered with a collection of witnesses who forged doubt on Terri Anderson, together with people with the Topeka Police Division who stated they had been unable to seek out information of a 911 name Anderson stated she made, nor stories of a police go to that Anderson stated was made in response to that decision.
Sisco, 47, and his fiancée, Harkness, 53, had been every shot a number of instances with a 9 mm weapon on July 7, 2002. Chandler, now 62, was questioned within the speedy aftermath, however wasn't charged at first.
For the subsequent seven years the case obtained publicity as investigators sought info from the general public. "48 Hours" broadcast the present "Haunted" in October 2009, which regarded on the chilly case, together with a 2007 report commissioned by legislation enforcement that concluded that Chandler was, within the view of legislation enforcement, the "main suspect."
She was arrested and entered not responsible pleas to 2 counts of first-degree homicide in 2011. She has been held on 1,000,000 dollars bail since then. In 2012, after a trial during which her youngsters testified in opposition to her, a Shawnee County jury convicted her on each counts and he or she was sentenced to life in jail. "48 Hours" broadcast a second present, "My Dad's Killer," in September 2012, reporting on the case and Chandler's trial and conviction.
Chandler's conviction was overturned in 2018, when the Kansas Supreme Courtroom dominated that proof introduced by prosecutor Jacqie Spradling was, in no less than one occasion, "made-up" and "deceptive."
Spradling was disbarred in Could for what the courtroom known as "insupportable acts of deception."
However the Kansas Supreme Courtroom didn't dismiss Chandler's case; as an alternative, it dominated that there was adequate proof to retry Chandler. It held that she "had motive and alternative and engaged in suspicious conduct after the murders."
After Chandler's conviction was overturned, she was transferred from a state jail to the Shawnee County jail, the place she has remained since.