Mike Hendricks, colum­nist for the Kansas City Star, recent­ly described how the state goes through the motions of hav­ing a death penal­ty, but with no imme­di­ate prospect of its use after 16 years. Kansas rein­stat­ed the death penal­ty in 1994; eight years ago, the Lansing Correctional Facility held an open house for the media, show­cas­ing its new death cham­ber. The room was then sealed and has remained untouched. Ten pris­on­ers await exe­cu­tion, one of whom has been on death row for thir­teen years. ​“No one that I’m aware of is even close,” said Kansas Department of Corrections spokesman Bill Miskell. Hendricks wrote: ​“Wouldn’t sen­tenc­ing the worst killers to life with­out chance of parole be a whole lot cheap­er, sim­pler and — giv­en the cold-blood­ed nature of state exe­cu­tions — more moral­ly accept­able?” A bill to abol­ish the death penal­ty is cur­rent­ly before the leg­is­la­ture. Read full text below.

Kansas pre­tends its cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment sys­tem is working 

The macabre open house was held spe­cial­ly for the media.

Photographers shot pic­tures for their files as reporters scribbled notes.

On where the 13 wit­ness­es would sit. On how the cur­tains would open in the observation rooms.

On what the process would be when the first con­demned man was led into the new suite of rooms on the fourth floor at the Lansing Correctional Facility.

And how, in day­time, the sun­light stream­ing through the glass block wall cast a soft glow on the gur­ney where the state of Kansas would car­ry out its first exe­cu­tion by lethal injection.

That was eight years ago. Soon after the crowd dis­persed, author­i­ties closed the new death cham­ber as one would a time capsule.

“For all intents and pur­pos­es, we sealed the area,” Kansas Department of Corrections spokesman Bill Miskell said.

No one ever goes in? I asked.

Occasionally, Miskell said, to check for a leak­ing pipe or some oth­er ail­ment that might befall any building.

Otherwise, it’s remained untouched since then, even as 10 men await exe­cu­tion. Thirteen years for one of them.

And yet.

“No one that I’m aware of is even close,” Miskell said when I asked when we might expect Kansas to car­ry out its first exe­cu­tion of any kind since 1965, and the first by lethal injec­tion since cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment was rein­stat­ed in 1994.

“It all depends on when an inmate has exhaust­ed all his appeals,” he said.

Officials haven’t even begun to select or train prison per­son­nel who might be called upon to per­form the deed. Pick some­one now, and he might well quit or retire before his ser­vices are needed.

“We’re talk­ing years, prob­a­bly many years — if then,” said Topeka defense lawyer Rebecca Woodman, who han­dles appeals in cap­i­tal murder cases.

Considering the lengthy appeals process, why does Kansas both­er hav­ing a death penalty?

Wouldn’t sen­tenc­ing the worst killers to life with­out chance of parole be a whole lot cheap­er, sim­pler and — giv­en the cold-blood­ed nature of state exe­cu­tions — more morally acceptable?

They’re set to debate that very ques­tion soon in the Kansas Senate while con­sid­er­ing a bill to repeal the state’s 16-year-old death penalty statute.

Don’t expect any­thing to come of it.

Rather than do the sen­si­ble thing, the Republican major­i­ty in the Legislature and the Democratic gov­er­nor (who wrote the cur­rent law while serv­ing in Senate) would soon­er pre­tend that the cur­rent system works.

And maybe it does — but only in theory.

(M. Hendricks, ​“Kansas pre­tends its cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment sys­tem is work­ing,” Kansas City Star, February 9, 2010). See Time on Death Row and Recent Legislative Activity.

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