Death Penalty Information Center
Search Close Menu
  • Issues
    • Issues
    • Biases & Vulnerabilities
      • Intellectual Disability
      • Mental Illness
      • Race
      • LGBTQ+ People
      • Youth
    • Policy
      • Arbitrariness How non-legal factors affect use of the death penalty
      • Clemency Death sentence reductions and pardons by state and federal executives
      • Costs The death penalty’s monetary cost to taxpayers
      • Deterrence Whether the death penalty deters future violent crime
      • Human Rights How international human rights law and treaties view the death penalty
      • Innocence People wrongfully sentenced to death
      • International How the death penalty is used in countries outside the U.S.
      • Legal Representation How the quality of defense counsel affects death penalty outcomes
      • Official Misconduct How wrongful government action affects death penalty outcomes
      • Public Opinion What the public says about the death penalty
      • Sentencing Alternatives Sentencing options for death-eligible crimes
      • US Supreme Court Supreme Court death penalty cases
  • Research
    • Research
    • Background
      • Crimes Punishable by Death
      • Fact Sheet
      • History of the Death Penalty
    • Data
      • Death Penalty Census
      • Execution Database
      • Innocence Database
      • Legislative Activity
      • Sentencing Data
    • Analysis
      • DPI Reports
    • DPI Reports Dec 19, 2024 The Death Penalty in 2024 Death Sentences and Executions Remain Near Historic Lows Amid Growing Concerns about Fairness and Innocence
  • Death Row & Executions
    • Death Row
      • Death Row Overview
      • Conditions on Death Row
      • Time on Death Row
      • Foreign Nationals
      • Native Americans
      • Women
    • Executions
      • Executions Overview
      • Upcoming Executions
      • Execution Database
      • Methods of Execution
      • Botched Executions
  • State & Federal Info
    • State & Federal Info
    • State by State
    • Federal Death Penalty
    • Military
    • Explore by State

      • Death Penalty
      • Pause on Executions
      • No Death Penalty
      AL AK AZ AR CA CO CT DE FL GA HI ID IL IN IA KS KY LA ME MD MA MI MN MS MO MT NE NV NH NJ NM NY NC ND OH OK OR PA RI SC SD TN TX UT VT VA WA WV WI WY DC
  • Resources
    • Resources
    • Links
      • College Curriculum Case narratives and resources to guide college discussions
      • DPI Podcasts DPI’s monthly podcast series where we speak with death penalty experts.
      • High School Curriculum Materials designed for high school educators and students
      • Publications & Testimony How DPI and others speak about the death penalty
      • Related Websites Links to governmental, advocacy, and legal organizations
      • Student Research Center Resources for students researching the death penalty
      • Teacher's Guide Two-week lesson plans for middle and high school classes
      • En Español Información sobre la pena de muerte en español
    • DPI Resource Fact Sheet PDF handout with facts about the Death Penalty.
  • About DPI
  • Media Contact
  • Donate

State & Federal

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 8th amendment.

2006 — In Kansas v. Marsh, the U.S. Supreme Court holds that the Kansas death penal­ty statute does not vio­late the 8th 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 Olin ​“Pete” Coones, Lamonte McIntyre, Floyd Bledsoe, Eddie James Lowery and Joe Jones.

• Olin ​“Pete” Coones was con­vict­ed of two mur­ders in 2009, despite strong evi­dence that point­ed to a mur­der-sui­cide and no phys­i­cal evi­dence link­ing Coones to the crime. Witnesses also placed Coones at his home dur­ing the time in which the crime was com­mit­ted, unable to even leave the house. The only evi­dence that linked Coones to the killings was an ongo­ing legal dis­pute with one of the vic­tims, Kathleen Scholl, and a phone call that Scholl had placed right before the deaths to her moth­er that impli­cat­ed Coones. Coones’s tri­al was rife with pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al mis­con­duct. Despite this, it took over 10 years for Coones to be exon­er­at­ed and released from prison. Coones died three months after his release. 

• Lamonte McIntyre was con­vict­ed of two counts of first-degree mur­der in 1994, after two eye­wit­ness­es iden­ti­fied McIntyre as the per­pe­tra­tor, despite no evi­dence of McIntyre’s con­nec­tion to the vic­tims, no motives for the killings, or any phys­i­cal evi­dence link­ing McIntyre to the crime. In the years fol­low­ing McIntyre’s con­vic­tion, evi­dence of offi­cial and pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al mis­con­duct was revealed, includ­ing that the lead pros­e­cu­tor and detec­tive elicit­ed false iden­ti­fi­ca­tion and wit­ness tes­ti­mo­ny. A roman­tic rela­tion­ship between the lead pros­e­cu­tor and judge was also not dis­closed to the defense. After more than 20 years in prison, McIntyre’s con­vic­tion was vacat­ed and the charges dis­missed in 2017. 

• Floyd Bledsoe was con­vict­ed of mur­der, child sex abuse, and the 2000 kid­nap­ping of his wife’s teenage sis­ter after his broth­er, Tom Bledsoe, accused him of the crimes. His broth­er had ear­li­er con­fessed to the crimes and turned him­self in but changed his sto­ry only once in cus­tody. While there was no foren­sic evi­dence link­ing Floyd to the crime, his defense proved to be inad­e­quate, as seen in their fail­ure to con­front Tom’s hear­ing prob­lems, which could bring into ques­tion Floyd’s alleged con­fes­sion to his broth­er, as well as the inclu­sion of state­ments from Floyd’s two-year-old son. There was also evi­dence of mis­con­duct, as offi­cials signed an order to not con­duct any DNA test­ing on the evi­dence. After sev­er­al failed appeals, Floyd Bledsoe was released and exon­er­at­ed in 2015 after DNA test­ing iden­ti­fied Tom as the per­pe­tra­tor, not Floyd. Shortly there­after, Tom com­mit­ted sui­cide, leav­ing behind sev­er­al notes con­fess­ing to the crime.

• 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.

Ad Astra per Aspera Statue on the Capitol Dome. Ad Astra per Aspera, meaning ​“To the Stars through Difficulty” is the Kansas State Motto. Photo by David Cook.

Resources

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

Kansas Execution Totals Since 1976


News & Developments


News

Oct 29, 2024

Hearings Begin on Constitutional Challenge to Kansas’ Death Penalty and Capital Jury Selection Process

“If you are charged with cap­i­tal mur­der … you are less like­ly to get…

Read More

News

Aug 19, 2024

Kansas City Star Op-Ed Describes the Death Penalty as the ​“Ultimate Failed Big-Government Program” and Calls for Abolition

Senator Carolyn McGinn (left) and Kelson Bohnet…

Read More

News

Jan 20, 2023

Kansas Capital Defendant Moves to Bar Death Penalty, Invoking State Constitution’s ​‘Strict Scrutiny’ For Life and Liberty Issues

A Kansas cap­i­tal defen­dant is chal­leng­ing the prosecution’s deci­sion to pur­sue the death penal­ty in his case, invok­ing a height­ened stan­dard of review the Kansas con­sti­tu­tion applies to infringe­ments of fundamental…

Read More

News

Jan 26, 2022

Kansas Supreme Court Rules that Death Penalty Does Not Violate State Constitution’s ​‘Inalienable’ Right to Life

The Kansas Supreme Court has upheld the state’s death penal­ty against two death-row pris­on­ers’ chal­lenges that cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment vio­lates the​“inalien­able” right to life enshrined in the Kansas…

Read More

News

Nov 16, 2020

Kansas Death-Row Prisoners File Suit Challenging Conditions of Confinement

Two death-sen­­tenced pris­on­ers in Kansas have filed a fed­er­al law­suit alleg­ing that the state’s pol­i­cy of auto­mat­ic soli­tary con­fine­ment for death-row pris­on­ers is uncon­sti­tu­tion­al. The two pris­on­ers, Sidney Gleason and Scott Cheever, have been held in iso­la­tion for 14 and 12 years, respec­tive­ly. Seven of the ten peo­ple on Kansas’ death row have been kept in soli­tary con­fine­ment for more…

Read More
View More

View Information by State

Additional Information


  • Death Penalty: Yes
  • Number of Executions Since 1976: 0
  • Number of Executions Before 1976 (may include fed­er­al and military executions): 57
  • Current Death Row Population: 9
  • Women on Death Row: 0
  • Number of Innocent People Freed From Death Row: 0
  • Number of Clemencies Granted: 0
  • Date of Reinstatement (fol­low­ing Furman v. Georgia): April 23, 1994
  • First Execution After Reinstatement: 0
  • Location of Death Row/​Executions: El Dorado Correctional Facility Administrative Segregation Unit, El Dorado, KS (Women: Topeka)
  • Capital: Topeka
  • Region: Midwest
  • Population: 2,937,880*
  • Murder Rate (per 100,000 population): 3.6
  • Is Life Without Parole an Option?: Yes
  • Can a defen­dant get death for a felony in which s/​he was not respon­si­ble for the murder?: No
  • Method of Execution: Lethal Injection
  • How is Sentence Determined?: Jury
  • Clemency Process: Governor may receive a non-bind­ing rec­om­men­da­tion of clemen­cy from a board or advisory group
  • Governor: Laura Kelly
Upcoming Executions

Upcoming Executions

Information about scheduled executions around the country

Innocence

Innocence

For every 8.2 peo­ple exe­cut­ed in the Unit­ed States in the mod­ern era of the death penal­ty, one per­son on death row has been exon­er­at­ed.

State-By-State

State-By-State

States With and Without the Death Penalty

DPI Fact Sheet

DPI Fact Sheet

PDF handout with facts about the Death Penalty

More Information


Innocence Database

Execution Database

Death Penalty Census Database

Death Penalty Information Center
  • Issues
    • Overview
    • Biases & Vulnerabilities
      • Intellectual Disability
      • Mental Illness
      • Race
      • LGBTQ+ People
      • Youth
    • Policy
      • Arbitrariness
      • Clemency
      • Costs
      • Deterrence
      • Human Rights
      • Innocence
      • International
      • Legal Representation
      • Official Misconduct
      • Public Opinion
      • Sentencing Alternatives
      • US Supreme Court
  • Research
    • Overview
    • Background
      • Crimes Punishable by Death
      • Fact Sheet
      • History of the Death Penalty
    • Data
      • Death Penalty Census
      • Execution Database
      • Innocence Database
      • Legislative Activity
      • Sentencing Data
    • Analysis
      • DPI Reports
  • Death Row & Executions
    • Death Row
      • Overview
      • Conditions on Death Row
      • Time on Death Row
      • Foreign Nationals
      • Native Americans
      • Women
    • Executions
      • Overview
      • Upcoming Executions
      • Execution Database
      • Methods of Execution
      • Botched Executions
  • State & Federal Info
    • Overview
    • State by State
    • Federal Death Penalty
    • Military
  • About
    • About DPI
    • Staff & Board of Directors
    • Press Releases
    • Work for DPI
  • Resources
    • Overview
    • Links
      • College Curriculum
      • DPI Podcasts
      • High School Curriculum
      • Publications & Testimony
      • Related Websites
      • Student Research Center
      • Teacher's Guide
      • En Español
Subscribe to our Newsletter
Close
Subscribe to our Newsletter

Weekly updated from DPI

Get our full length featured story in your inbox weekly.

  • X
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
Donate
Death Penalty Information Center | 1701 K Street NW, Suite 750, Washington, DC 20006
Privacy Policy | ©2025 Death Penalty Information Center