The growing Kansas legislative support for abolition was clear with the introduction of HB 2349 and SB 211 in February.
In the House, Rep. Mark Schreiber and thirty three of his House colleagues sponsored HB 2349. Those co-sponsoring Representatives are: Amyx, Ballard, Blew, Carmichael, Concannon,
Curtis, Donohoe, Eplee, Featherston, Haskins, Haswood, Highberger, Hoye, V. Miller, Neighbor, Ohaebosim, Osman, Poskin, Probst, Robinson, S. Ruiz, Sawyer, Sawyer Clayton,
Schlingensiepen, A. Smith, Stogsdill, Sutton, Vaughn, Wasinger, Winn, Woodard, Xu and Younger.
The Senate legislation, SB 211 has Senator Carolyn McGinn as lead sponsor and thirteen co-sponsoring Senators: Bowers, Dietrich, Doll, Faust Goudeau, Francisco, Haley, Holscher,
Longbine, Pettey, Pittman, Reddi, Sykes and Ware.
Sponsors in both chambers are a mix of Republicans and Democrats with varying lengths of legislative service. It is significant is that nearly 30% of the legislature is willing to put their name ON the bill. They, plus those who support abolition but did not decide to co sponsor, form an ever growing body of legislative support for ending the Kansas death penalty.
Both bills end the death penalty as a punishment for the most serious murders in Kansas which occur on or after the effective date of the legislation. The punishment would be life in prison without parole.
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