There are many practical reasons to support death penalty abolition in Kansas. They include the following:
Cost:
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- A 2014 study by the Kansas Judicial Council Death Penalty Advisory Committee found defense and district court costs are 3-4 times more for cases where the death penalty is sought than for similar cases where it is not sought.
- Even when capital cases end in a plea bargain, defense and district court costs are 2 to 2.2 times more than if the death penalty is not on the table.
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The Risk of Error:
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- Nationally 190 persons have been released from death row due to wrongful conviction.
- In recent years, Kansas courts have freed three men who had been wrongfully convicted of first degree murder.These men had served twenty-three, sixteen, and twelve years respectively before the error was corrected. Kansas’ history of wrongful conviction convinced the Kansas Legislature to pass legislation to compensate those who were innocent and sent to prison.
- If the death penalty remains in place, there remains the real risk of executing an innocent person, recently illustrated by wrongful convictions here in Kansas.
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Impact on Victims:
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- By keeping the death penalty in place, Kansas forces some murder victims’ families to endure years of additional legal proceedings and uncertainty, which can inflict additional pain and delay the healing process.
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Bottom Line:
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- The Kansas death penalty is a failed policy; it is costly, ineffective, and harmful.
- Replacing it with life in prison without parole is a common sense solution addressing this broken system while keeping society saf
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To learn more, see our fact sheets as well as the stories of exonerees and Kansas murder victim family members.