Bills to replace the Kansas death penalty have been filed in both the House and Senate. SB 21 was introduced on January 17th and referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee. HB 2282 was introduced on February 12th and referred to House Corrections and Juvenile Justice Committee. Both bills would end the death penalty for the most serious murders in Kansas occurring on or after July 1, 2019.  The new sentence would be life in prison without parole.  It would provide for public safety without the extra cost and risks of the death penalty. For more information on the death penalty, […]

Many Kansans used to think that a politician’s stance on abolition could be predicted by what party he or she was representing. The 2010 Senate vote showed the fallacy of that belief. Twelve Republicans and eight Democrats supported abolition, and nineteen Republicans and one Democrat opposed it. The most recent abolition bill, HB 2167, introduced in 2017, continued the non-partisan tradition with eight Republicans and seven Democrats sponsoring. We saw further evidence of this non-partisan reality this spring when KCADP was invited to speak at the Libertarian Party of Kansas state convention. On April 21st, Ron Wurtz spoke with conference […]