The Republican Liberty Caucus of Kansas has offi­cial­ly announced its oppo­si­tion to the death penal­ty. The Caucus chair, Dave Thomas, said, ​“Any time you give the gov­ern­ment a pow­er that can be abused, it will or may be abused in the future. And tak­ing a cit­i­zen’s life is kind of the ulti­mate pow­er the gov­ern­ment can have.” The Caucus joined sev­er­al Republcan leg­is­la­tors, such as Sen. Carolyn McGinn and Rep. Steve Becker, in sup­port­ing repeal of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. The Kansas Republican Party chose to omit a death-penal­ty stance from of its plat­form this year, leav­ing it as ​“a mat­ter of indi­vid­ual con­science.” The Kansas Libertarian Party oppos­es the death penal­ty. In 2013, a repeal bill spon­sored by two Republicans and one Democrat received hear­ings, but was not passed. Kansas has 10 peo­ple on death row but has not had an exe­cu­tion since cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment was rein­stat­ed in 1994.

(A. Marso, ​“Death penal­ty oppo­nents see GOP sup­port for prac­tice erod­ing,” Topeka Capital-Journal, August 19, 2014). See New Voices and Recent Legislation.

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