Kansas Lawmakers Refuse to Fix State’s Death Penalty

Kansas law­mak­ers have decid­ed not to vote on a pro­posed fix to the state’s death penal­ty statute, a deci­sion that could put the future of the law in the hands of the U.S. Supreme Court. In 2004, the Kansas Supreme Court over­turned the death penal­ty because of the way jurors were instruct­ed in cap­i­tal cas­es. Some leg­is­la­tors are hop­ing that the U.S. Supreme Court will reverse the Kansas court’s deci­sion. It could be months before the U.S. Supreme Court decides whether to take the case. Until then, no per­son con­vict­ed of mur­der in Kansas is eli­gi­ble to receive a death sen­tence under the cur­rent law. Some sen­a­tors said that a leg­isla­tive rem­e­dy to the statute would have meant that those who received the death penal­ty under the old law could not be resen­tenced to death. A bill to abol­ish the state’s death penal­ty was also sent back with­out a full sen­ate vote. (Kansas City Star, February 22, 2005). See Recent Legislative Activity.