On July 1st, the Kansas death penalty law turned thirty. As we talk with ordinary Kansans, we discover that on occasion, someone does not even know that Kansas has a death penalty law on the books.
Here are some basic stats.
- 15 men have been sentenced to death.
- 9 inmates are currently under death sentence.
- 4 of the death sentenced inmates were resentenced to alternative non death sentences with the consent of prosecutors and 2 died in custody. Thus, 40% of the men originally sentenced to death in Kansas are no longer at risk of execution.
- Kansas last execution was in 1965.
Lest one think that these stats prove that it is only symbolic and hurts no one, that is far from the truth.
Every time a case is filed as capital it launches a capital level process. The district attorney proceeds in their case using additional staff resources that they would not be using if it were a different level homicide. County budgets are the ones hit with this extra expense.
The defense team will consist of, at minimum, 2 attorneys, a fact investigator, and a mitigation investigator — again a larger use of resources than in other homicides. That has huge ramifications for the State Board of Indigents’ Defense Services (SBIDS) which represents indigent defendants throughout the system. In fact, death penalty defense costs in the fiscal year 2025 budget for SBIDS are anticipated to take up 9.2 % of the SBIDS budget, despite those cases being less than 0.15% of the agency’s caseload.
In the courts, more motions are filed and hearings are longer. This has impact on other cases which need to be scheduled for that same courtroom and judge. Those cases are delayed because of the extra time capital cases take up. The impact on the courts is true whether it proceeds to trial or is pled.
So, these supposedly symbolic capital case filings do have an impact on county budgets, the state budget and the overall pace of justice in that county. That impacts everyone and we’re only mostly talking taxpayer dollars and cents here.
The death penalty has ramifications way beyond money. Morality, conviction of innocent people, human costs to those caught in the system including lawyers, law enforcement, prison workers, and families of the victims and the accused are all reasons to seek alternatives to the death penalty. We will discuss these and more at a later date.