The Kansas death penalty has been ‘on trial’ before Judge Bill Klapper in Wyandotte District Court since late October 2024.
The State Board of Indigent Defense Services, the American Civil Liberties Union, the Kansas ACLU, and attorneys from Hogan Lovells, and Ali & Lockwood filed a constitutional challenge on behalf of two men who were charged with capital murder in Wyandotte County. Their motion claimed that the Kansas capital punishment system was unconstitutional under state and federal law because it is cruel, unusual, biased and arbitrary.
On April 16th Judge Klapper released his decision. The constitutional challenge was ruled moot as the district attorney had withdrawn intent to seek death in both cases. So, there was no finding about whether the Kansas death penalty is constitutional or not.
Judge Klapper could have stopped there. He did not. Judge Klapper wrote the evidence presented to the court by the experts testifying in support of the motion was “..decidedly persuasive and well-reasoned.”
In his decision he cited a number of critical flaws with the Kansas death penalty:
“The correlation between homicides and death sentencing behavior (capital charging, death noticing and death sentencing) is nearly zero.”
“The factors which distinguish death sentence cases from non-death sentence cases are the race and gender of the victim, and the race and gender of the defendant.”
“How will families of the victims ever begin to heal and attempt the process of recovery (if that is even possible), when the legal system continues to reopen those painful wounds with each new motion and/or appeal.”
“The scientific community has found no reliable evidence of the death penalty being a deterrent to homicides.”
Cruel and unusual? Biased? Arbitrary? The flaws identified by Judge Klapper are prevalent, ongoing features of Kansas’ capital punishment system. When will legislators find the will to rid Kansas of this fatally flawed policy?