On June 22, Kansas will turn 55. No it doesn’t mean Kansas can take money out of a retirement plan or get senior citizen discounts. Rather, we celebrate 55 years without an execution conducted in the name of the people of Kansas!
Kansas has long had a conflicted history regarding the death penalty. That history set a foundation for the fifty five year milestone.
A Conflicted History
Kansas had the death penalty in its laws as it began statehood. Opposition developed early on though to state killing. In 1872, when the Legislature passed a law requiring Kansas governors to execute, the governors refused to be involved with execution orders!
Abolition became law in 1907 and continued until 1935. A new death penalty law was passed that year and remained in effect til 1972 when the Furman decision voided death sentences across the United States. Kansas was then death penalty free until 1994 when the current law was passed.