Kansas

Timeline

1907 — Governor Hoch abol­ish­es Kansas’ death penal­ty for the first time.

1935 — The death penal­ty is rein­stat­ed in Kansas.

1965 — George York and James Latham are exe­cut­ed in a dou­ble hang­ing. These are the last exe­cu­tions Kansas has car­ried out to date.

1979 – 1985 — The Kansas State Legislature attempts to rein­state the death penal­ty, but Governor Carlin vetoes rein­state­ment leg­is­la­tion dur­ing this period.

1994 — The cur­rent Kansas death penal­ty statute is enact­ed once Governor Finney allowed it into law with­out her signature.

1995 — The Kansas leg­is­la­ture abol­ish­es the affir­ma­tive insan­i­ty defense which allowed a defen­dant to be acquit­ted if they did not under­stand the dif­fer­ence between right and wrong at the time of their crime.

2001 — In State v. Kleypas, the Kansas Supreme Court ruled that the state statute, which allowed the impo­si­tion of the death penal­ty when mit­i­gat­ing and aggra­vat­ing fac­tors were of equal weight, is uncon­sti­tu­tion­al under the 8^th amendment.

2006 — In Kansas v. Marsh, the U.S. Supreme Court holds that the Kansas death penal­ty statute does not vio­late the 8^th amend­ment, revers­ing the Kansas Supreme Court’s deci­sion in State v. Kleypas. As long as juries are able to con­sid­er all of the rel­e­vant mit­i­gat­ing evi­dences, states can require the death penal­ty when aggra­vat­ing and mit­i­gat­ing fac­tors are equally balanced.

2013 — In Kansas v. Cheever, the Kansas Supreme Court deter­mines that the Fifth amend­ment does not pre­vent the pros­e­cu­tion from intro­duc­ing psy­chi­atric evi­dence to rebut psy­chi­atric evi­denced pre­sent­ed by the defense.

2016 — In Kansas v. Carr, the U.S. Supreme Court reverse the deci­sions of the Kansas Supreme Court, restor­ing the death sen­tences of Jonathan Carr, Reginald Carr, Jr., and Sidney Gleason. The Kansas Supreme Court had vacat­ed the men’s death sen­tences because the jury was not informed that mit­i­gat­ing fac­tors pre­sent­ed dur­ing the sen­tenc­ing pro­ceed­ings to spare a defen­dan­t’s life do not need to be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.

2020 — In Kahler v. Kansas, the U.S. Supreme Court holds that Kansas’ approach towards pro­vid­ing for an insan­i­ty defense based on men­tal dis­ease or defect does not vio­late due process. The state is not required to adopt an insan­i­ty test to deter­mine a defen­dan­t’s under­stand­ing of right and wrong at the time of the crime.

2022 — The Kansas Supreme Court affirms the death sen­tences of Jonathan and Reginald Carr, con­clud­ing that the Kansas con­sti­tu­tion does not stip­u­late that the inalien­able right to life and lib­er­ty could not be forfeited.

Famous Cases

The Clutter Family

The mur­ders of Herbert Clutter, his wife and two of his chil­dren in Holcomb became one of Kansas’ most famous cas­es when Truman Capote chron­i­cled the mur­ders and the tri­al in his 1966 book, ​“In Cold Blood.”

Richard ​“Dick” Hickok and Perry Smith, two parolees, were con­vict­ed of the mur­ders. They were both exe­cut­ed by hang­ing on April 14, 1965.

Michael Marsh

Marsh was con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death for the killings of Marry Ane and Marry Elizabeth Pusch in 1996. The Kansas Supreme Court ruled that the death penal­ty statute was uncon­sti­tu­tion­al because of its require­ment that, when a jury finds dur­ing a sen­tenc­ing hear­ing that the mit­i­gat­ing and aggra­vat­ing fac­tors are equal, they must choose death.

The US Supreme Court over­turned this deci­sion in June 2006. Justice Scalia wrote a con­cur­ring opin­ion in this case where he claimed:

“It should be not­ed at the out­set that the dis­sent does not dis­cuss a sin­gle case — not one — in which it is clear that a per­son was exe­cut­ed for a crime he did not com­mit. If such an event had occurred in recent years, we would not have to hunt for it; the innocent’s name would be shout­ed from the rooftops by the abolition lobby.”

See DPIC’s web­page Executed But Possibly Innocent for exam­ples of cas­es in which like­ly inno­cent death-row pris­on­ers have been executed.

Notable Exonerations

While there have been no death penal­ty exon­er­a­tions in Kansas, there have been notable felony exon­er­a­tions includ­ing the cas­es of Eddie James Lowery and Joe Jones.

• Eddie James Lowery was con­vict­ed of rape in 1982 after he false­ly con­fessed to a crime he did not com­mit. Lowery was ques­tioned for an entire day with no food and no rest, and was not pro­vid­ed a lawyer when he request­ed one. Under duress, he con­fessed to the rape hop­ing to be found inno­cent dur­ing his tri­al. Instead, because he was not under arrest at the time, the court allowed his false con­fes­sion to be used in the tri­al. He was paroled after near­ly 10 years, and was not exon­er­at­ed by DNA evi­dence until 2002.

• Joe Jones was con­vict­ed of kid­nap­ping, assault and rape in 1986 and giv­en a life sen­tence. The vic­tim iden­ti­fied a dif­fer­ent man when pre­sent­ed with a pho­to array, but iden­ti­fied Jones as her rapist in per­son. Jones was exon­er­at­ed by DNA evi­dence in 1992 after court offi­cials allowed the rape kit to be tested.

Notable Commutations/​Clemencies

Before his term end­ed, Governor George Docking (1957 – 1960) com­mut­ed the sen­tences of two of the five inmates on death row, Earl Wilson and Bobbie Joe Spencer. Governor Docking was also respon­si­ble for a hia­tus in Kansas exe­cu­tions between 1954 and 1960. The only exe­cu­tions that took place in Kansas dur­ing those years were at the US Army and Air Force Disciplinary Barracks.

Milestones in Abolition/​Reinstatement

• The Kansas death penal­ty has been abol­ished and rein­stat­ed three times. The state’s death penal­ty was first abol­ished on January 30, 1907 by Governor Hoch. For that rea­son, January 30 is cel­e­brat­ed by KCADP as ​“Abolition Day” in Kansas.

• In 1935, the death penal­ty was rein­stat­ed, but no exe­cu­tions took place under the law until 1944. Kansas had this death penal­ty statute in effect until the 1972 US Supreme Court rul­ing that struck down the death penalty.

• After the 1976 US Supreme Court rul­ings that upheld the con­sti­tu­tion­al­i­ty of sev­er­al states’ death penal­ty statutes, the Kansas leg­is­la­ture made numer­ous attempts to rein­state the death penal­ty. Governor Carlin vetoed rein­state­ment leg­is­la­tion in 1979, 1980, 1981, and 1985. The cur­rent death penal­ty statute was enact­ed in 1994 when Governor Finney allowed it to become law with­out her signature.

• In 2010, the Kansas Senate was one vote short of vot­ing to replace the death penal­ty with life with­out the pos­si­bil­i­ty of parole for the crime of aggravated murder.

Other Interesting Facts

• Of states that still allow the death penal­ty, Kansas was the last state to rein­state the death penal­ty in the mod­ern era. (New York rein­stat­ed its death penal­ty in 1995, but abol­ished it in 2007.)

• Kansas has not exe­cut­ed any­one since 1965.

• The U.S. Military’s death row is locat­ed at the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

Resources

• Kansas Coalition Against the Death Penalty
• Department of Corrections
• Prosecutors
• Public defend­er’s office
• Victims’ ser­vices
  
  

Kansas Execution Totals Since 1976