[WCADP-list] Kansas Supreme Court Strikes Down Death Penalty!!

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KANSAS SUPREME COURT STRIKES DOWN DEATH PENALTY LAW;
14 STATES NOW WITHOUT CAPITAL PUNISHMENT

The Kansas Supreme Court Friday struck down that state's death penalty law,
making 14 states free of capital punishment, the National Coalition to
Abolish the Death Penalty said today.

Earlier this year, a New York state court took similar action. Kansas and
New York are the two most recent states to reinstate the death penalty, with
Kansas reinstating it in 1994 and New York in 1995. Neither state has
executed anyone since reinstatement. Today's ruling vacates all six death
sentences in Kansas.

"Today's development should not surprise anyone," said NCADP Executive
Director Diann Rust-Tierney. "Our experience in looking at the death penalty
teaches us that it is exceedingly difficult to craft a system that is both
procedurally fair and mistake-free. Without the death penalty, we hope
Kansas will be able to focus its resources on providing more support for
crime victims as well as crime prevention efforts."

The Kansas Supreme Court struck down the state's death penalty law on a 4-3
vote because it said the law gave the state an unfair advantage over
defendants during the sentencing process. Rust-Tierney noted that Kansas has
a history of antipathy toward the death penalty; the state abolished capital
punishment in 1907, brought it back in 1935 and then observed a moratorium
in the late 1950s and early 1960s, when the Republican governor at the time
said, "I just don't like killing people."

One year ago, Kansas officials released a cost study that showed the state's
death penalty system costs approximately 70 percent more than comparable
non-death penalty cases. The study found that the median cost of a death
penalty trial and appeals was $1.26 million while non-death penalty cases
cost a median of $740,000.


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The Washington Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty
P. O. Box 3045
Seattle, WA 98114
(206) 622-8952
www.abolishdeathpenalty.org <http://www.abolishdeathpenalty.org/> 
 
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