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OUR FEATURED POSTS
Tree of Healing
Our Response to Murder: Revenge? Or Support and Healing? In the 1994 Kansas legislative session, the question again arose – what should be the response to the most serious form of murder? Prison or execution? In response, Bill Lucero, KCADP founder and murder victim family member, told the House Federal and State Affairs Committee, “The death penalty that’s been proposed will not relieve that suffering and pain . . . . Legal vengeance, thinly disguised as ‘retribution justice’ only prolongs and creates greater suffering. Let me emphasize, healing will only occur from time, and the love and support of […]
[ Read More... ]Why Abolition Makes Sense
There are many practical reasons to support death penalty abolition in Kansas. They include the following: Cost: A 2014 study by the Kansas Judicial Council Death Penalty Advisory Committee found defense and district court costs are 3-4 times more for cases where the death penalty is sought than for similar cases where it is not sought. Even when capital cases end in a plea bargain, defense and district court costs are 2 to 2.2 times more than if the death penalty is not on the table. The Risk of Error: Nationally 190 persons have been released from death row due to […]
[ Read More... ]OUR RECENT POSTS
All Roads Lead to Manhattan on November 2nd
"Make a Difference: Join the Journey to End the Death Penalty" is the title of the 2019 KCADP Annual Meeting and Abolition Conference. It will be held on Saturday November 2nd from 1 to 4 p.m. at the KSU Union, Bluemont Room. Keynote speaker is former Governor John Carlin. During his tenure as … [ Read More... ]

“The death penalty has no place in Kansas”
2018 Abolition Conference panelists: (left to right) Bob Weeks, Floyd Bledsoe, Richard Ney “The Kansas criminal justice system is too imperfect to trust it with the death penalty. I know from spending over 16 years in a Kansas prison for a murder I didn’t commit until DNA … [ Read More... ]

Murder: It doesn’t have to end with another death
In 1994 when the Legislature was debating the reinstatement of the Kansas death penalty, proponents kept saying the tragedy of murder had to lead to another death via execution. Murder victim family member Bill Lucero visited legislators and told them that it did not need to end that way. He … [ Read More... ]