Serial killer John E. Robinson gets lawyer to assist in appeal of death sentence
A lawyer has been appointed to assist convicted serial killer John E. Robinson Sr. in the appeal of his conviction and death sentence.
Robinson, 73, filed the appeal in Johnson County District Court in November, alleging that his death sentence violated the Kansas and U.S. constitutions.
He asked that a lawyer be appointed to assist him in the appeal.
On Monday, Mark Manna, an attorney with the Kansas public defender system, entered his appearance on behalf of Robinson.
The case is now set for a Feb. 8 scheduling conference.
Robinson, of Olathe, was charged in 2000 after police found the bodies of two women in barrels on property he owned in Linn County, Kan., south of Kansas City.
The bodies of three more women were later found in barrels in a storage unit he rented in Cass County.
The ensuing investigation also linked Robinson to three women who had not been seen since they disappeared in the 1980s. It was later determined that the infant daughter of one of those women had been raised by relatives of Robinson after he had engineered a phony adoption.
Robinson and some of his victims were involved in the bondage and discipline sexual lifestyle and shared a master-slave relationship.
In 2002, a Johnson County jury found Robinson guilty of killing three women over a period of 15 years, including the mother of the infant girl. He was subsequently sentenced to death.
After the Johnson County trial, Robinson pleaded guilty in Cass County to five counts of murder and was sentenced to life in prison.
In 2015, the Kansas Supreme Court upheld most of the convictions and the death sentence in the Johnson County case.
Last October, the U.S. Supreme Court denied his request for a hearing.
In his November court filing, Robinson said he will need the help of a lawyer to properly prepare the appeal.
Tony Rizzo: 816-234-4435, @trizzkc
This story was originally published January 10, 2017 at 9:14 AM with the headline "Serial killer John E. Robinson gets lawyer to assist in appeal of death sentence."