January 12th marked the start of the 2026 legislative session.
Repeal: SB 245 and HB 2272 carried over into the 2026 session. Both would repeal the death penalty for crimes on or after the effective date of the legislation. The penalty for the most serious murders in Kansas would be life in prison without parole.
The bills are in the House and Senate Judiciary Committees.
The fact that Kansas has a death penalty is not a “no harm no foul” situation. Aside from the moral considerations of state-sponsored killing, there are many reasons these bills should be heard and passed into law—from the extra tax burden the death penalty places on Kansas taxpayers, to the real risk of sentencing an innocent person to death, to the recurrent trauma inflicted on murder victim family members, and the reality that public safety and accountability can be achieved without more violence.
Expedited Appeals: SB 60 and HB 2241 both attack a fundamental safeguard for Kansans who have been convicted of crime, whether capital murder or some lessor crime. These bills attack the right to successor habeas petitions.
Habeas at the state level looks at whether there was ineffective assistance of counsel at the trial, if the attorney failed to thoroughly prepare for trial, or if there is new exonerating evidence, etc. If a person’s original trial or appellate attorney does not do their job, then grievous errors can go unchecked and the person stays in prison and/or under sentence of death.
The expedited appeals bills are in the Senate and House Judiciary Committees.
The Lamont McIntyre case shows the need for access to successor habeas. Convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to two life sentences, it took Mr. McIntyre three habeas petitions until he finally got a lawyer who was competent and dedicated, and who brought before the Court evidence that had been available all along. Prior attorneys just had not introduced it. When that evidence was brought before the court, it led to his exoneration. In the Senate Judiciary hearing this year, KU Law Professor Jean Phillips laid out the risk of expedited appeals to innocent persons in Kansas prisons.
You can track these bills on the Legislature’s website.