On Monday March 4th, SB 534 was introduced by Senate Federal and State Affairs Committee. It has been referred to Senate Judiciary.
This bill contains the same faulty elements as HB 2782.
- The bill would provide for an option of hypoxia as an alternative execution method in Kansas.
Hypoxia suffocates a person due to a lack of oxygen. When using a gas like nitrogen, the recent execution in Alabama shows the problems that can be associated with it. However, the bill doesn’t even specify what kind of hypoxia could be allowed. People could be suffocated by any means under this law.
- It would also change legal process around death warrants and the timing of the same.
Expedited legal process does not allow attorneys to raise critical issues that may need to be reviewed by the courts prior to execution.
- Finally, it changes responsibility for lethal injection drug selection.
Current law requires the Secretary Kansas Department of Health and Environment to certify the lethal injection drugs. This bill would put that duty on the secretary of corrections who would have sole authority for what drugs are used and the authority to change the drugs used.
Medical professionals knowledgeable about the impact of nitrogen on the body criticized this legislation.
The Kansas Coalition Against the Death Penalty continues to believe that the issue is NOT the method of execution, but rather the existence of the death penalty itself.
By continuing to keep the death penalty in law, Kansans are harmed as capital punishment continues to waste taxpayer dollars, harms victim families and prison staff, risks the lives of the innocent, and violates the morals of many Kansans for a public policy built on vengeance.