TOPEKA, Kan. — Kansas Governor Laura Kelly has denied a clemency request from convicted serial killer John Robinson, keeping his death sentence in place, according to a media release from Kelly's office.
In a statement released Thursday, Kelly announced she had rejected Robinson’s request for clemency and commutation of his death sentence. Robinson is one of nine inmates currently on death row in Kansas.
“Kansas reinstated the death penalty in 1994, and it remains the law today,” Kelly said. “As the existence of a credible claim of innocence or evidence of manifest injustice are absent in his request, I have denied John Robinson’s request to commute his death sentence.”
Robinson was convicted in a series of murders involving women in Kansas and Missouri between the mid-1980s and 2000. Investigators discovered the remains of several victims concealed in barrels at a storage facility in Raytown, Missouri, and on Robinson’s property in Linn County, Kansas.
Authorities said Robinson lured victims through false job offers and other schemes before killing them.
In Kansas, Robinson was convicted in Johnson County of aggravated kidnapping, two counts of capital murder and other crimes. He was sentenced to death on Jan. 21, 2003.
The case drew national attention due to the number of victims and the length of time Robinson was able to evade detection. He remains incarcerated on Kansas’ death row.