This is an exciting time in KCADP’s history! KCADP is seeking to hire a Kansas City-based Field Organizer and an Administrative Coordinator.
KCADP believes there is momentum in Kansas for abolishing the death penalty, and we are increasing our work to sustain and increase that momentum. We are looking for two new staff members who will help us achieve our goal!
For more information please click on the Job Description links below to open the PDF files.
On April 23rd, 1994, the Kansas Death Penalty was re-instated without the signature of then-Governor Joan Finney. A group of abolitionists, many of whom are still involved with the struggle to repeal the death penalty had been fasting for 10 days before the 23rd, hoping their presence would encourage Gov. Finney to veto the legislation.
The day after the death penalty became law, members of the group gathered at a home in Topeka to plant a cottonwood tree as a symbol of non-violent opposition to state-sponsored executions. Every year since, on April 23rd, people gather around the “Tree of Healing” to commemorate the day and re-dedicate themselves to the campaign against the death penalty. This year 11 abolitionists came for the event. Click here and here for a some brief media coverage of the event.
Attendees at the 2012 Tree of Healing Gathering
Board Member Jeff Wicks and staff member Christine Cook will be the featured speakers at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, January 24th at College Hill United Methodist Church in Wichita. They will discuss the pending abolition bills as well as provide information about the death penalty in Kansas. The event is being hosted by the United Methodist Women. It is free and open to the public.
This is an exciting time in KCADP’s history! We are seeking to expand our public education and outreach in the Wichita regional area.
KCADP believes there is momentum in Kansas for abolishing the death penalty, and we are increasing our work to sustain and increase that momentum. We are looking for organizer who will help us achieve our goal!
For more information please click on the Job Announcement and Job Description links below.
Although Kansas has not carried out an execution since 1965, the state has had guidelines in place for the past decade on how to proceed when one is carried out.
Former Secretary of Corrections Charles Simmons explained in the article why, for example, an execution would be carried out in Lansing while death sentences inmates are held in El Dorado.
“The decision to house capital inmates at one prison and execute them at another was made to benefit staff members who take care of those prisoners on a long-term basis, then-Kansas Corrections Secretary Chuck Simmons told The Topeka Capital-Journal in 2001.”
An execution is something that has a certain amount of impact on all of the staff who participate.
- Charles Simmons, 2001.
To view the entire article:
http://cjonline.com/news/local/2011-09-03/process-kansas-execution#.TmKIUo6aPy9
From the Daily Kansan.
By Erin Brown
The state budget crisis has forced Kansas legislators to re-evaluate state spending, leading some lawmakers to review the cost and effectiveness of the Kansas death penalty law.
The Kansas legislature is reviewing Senate Bills 208 and 375, both of which would abolish the death penalty in Kansas. Senate Bill 208 was introduced and debated last year, but no action was taken on the bill.
After three days of hearings, the Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to consider Senate Bill 375 Friday, Sen. Marci Francisco (D-Lawrence), said.
“The major concern that brought this topic up again was looking at the cost,” Francisco said. “Obviously we are in a tight budget situation.”
A death penalty prosecution can cost as much as a million dollars, she said, while a life sentence without parole could save taxpayers half a million dollars or more for each case.
According to Senate Bill 208, the median cost of a non-death-penalty murder case was approximately 70 percent less than the median cost of a death sentence.
Kansas re-enacted the death penalty in 1994, but has not carried out an execution since 1965, according to Senate Bill 375.
According to the National Center for State Courts’ website, Kansas has 10 inmates on death row. As the bill now stands, the abolishment of the death penalty, if passed, would not take effect until July 1, 2010.
Although Francisco is not a member of the Judiciary Committee, she said that she was glad the committee had decided to review the death penalty, and that she hoped to debate a bill in the full senate.
“I think senators feel this is a good time to engage again in this discussion and debate,” she said.
George Dungan, a senior from Lincoln, Neb. and vice-president of KU Young Democrats, said he was glad legislators had decided to debate the death penalty, especially during a time of economic instability for the state.
“In a time when Kansas is struggling to make ends meet, it seems absurd to continue an ineffective and expensive program, such as the death penalty,” he said.
Eric Foss, a senior from Overland Park and president of KU College Republicans, said his support for the death penalty hinged on the effectiveness of a state’s appeals process.
“For me, it’s not an argument of whether it is a more effective punishment,” he said. “We need to make sure we aren’t executing innocent people. That’s my primary concern.”
Foss said he thought it was possible the death penalty would end in Kansas.
“I think now, more than ever, because of budget constraints it is pretty likely that the decision to outlaw the death penalty may be made,” he said.
Kansas is one of 35 states with the death penalty, according to the National Center for State Courts. Fifteen states have abolished the death penalty, the most recent being New Mexico, which outlawed the death penalty last year.
From The Daily Kansan.
By Caitlin Thornbrugh
With the majority of the nation looking to save even a few dollars, it is not a surprise that the state of Kansas is trying to economize a budget that is becoming more and more of a problem.
On Friday, a Senate committee will review a proposal to repeal the death penalty in Kansas. The Senate should vote in favor of the repeal, not only because it is a human rights issue, but because it will save the state a substantial amount of money.
During a budget crisis, even a traditionally conservative state should see the benefits of saving money from the proposed bill.
Today, The Kansan reported that Sen. Marci Franciso (D-Lawrence) said she thought the primary reason this topic was being discussed was because of the status of the budget. A death penalty prosecution can cost as much as a million dollars, she said, while a life sentence without parole could save taxpayers half a million dollars or more for each case.
According to Senate Bill 208 the average cost of a murder case without the death penalty sentence costs approximately 70 percent less than the average cost of a case that does have a death sentence. The misinformed argument that it is too expensive to impose life sentences without parole is false.
Kansas is one of 35 states that have a death penalty sentence for certain crimes. In Kansas, capital punishment has not been used once since its re-enactment 16 years ago. This lack of use is yet another reason to eliminate an unnecessary, money draining procedure.
Aside from monetary reasons, the death penalty also raises human rights questions. Capital punishment has a history of racism and execution of the innocent. These problems, along with fiscal motivations, establish a firm argument against the death penalty law.
The Senate committee will be making a fiscally responsible decision, as well as voting in favor of human rights, if it passes this bill to the full Senate. Students at the University, who are affected by the state budget, should contact their senators to support repealing the death penalty law.
Today The Christian Science Monitor calls for an end of the Death Penalty in Kansas.
If the bill passes, Kansas will become the third state in three years to eliminate capital punishment – another encouraging milestone on the way to ending this practice in America.
The final words of the commentary sum up what everyone needs to know and understand;
A government’s job is to preserve life, not compound a terrible wrong by taking another life. A death sentence cuts off the opportunity for redemption and leans on an outdated concept of justice based on revenge.
The practical concerns spurring the anti-death-penalty trend are important, but circumstances can change. The moral imperative does not.
From the Kansas State Collegian.
By Tim Hadachek
The state of Texas executed 22 death row inmates in 2004, so the case of Cameron Todd Willingham hardly seemed special at the time. Willingham had been convicted of setting his own house ablaze and killing his three children inside. According to the jury, the prosecution used a forensic fire expert to prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, that Willingham used lighter fluid to set the fire in his infant daughters’ room.
No motive could be found. The prosecution postulated that Willingham simply went berserk — the culmination of years of unstable behavior. During his 12 years on death row all the way to his execution, Willingham maintained his innocence. However, he could have avoided the death penalty with a guilty plea.
Still, none of this was notable. Many executed inmates profess innocence. Many murderers are simply insane with no apparent motive. This seemed just another example of our court system delivering justice where it was due.
However, this month’s New Yorker magazine revealed that the Willingham case wasn’t as airtight as it seemed. The article’s author David Grann, revealed how a third-party arson investigator completely debunked the prosecution expert’s findings. There was no proof that Willingham started the fire. In fact, the investigator determined the fire was not arson at all but rather an accident most likely caused by faulty space heaters in the children’s room.
The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles received the report that seemed to exonerate Willingham. In spite of this, the board voted to deny his petition for clemency, and he was executed.
This is the worst failure possible in our legal system.
It’s possible that Cameron Willingham was guilty. It’s possible that a different investigator would have affirmed the prosecution’s conclusions. It’s possible that Willingham was just a psychopath, killing for no reason other than that he could.
It’s possible. But it doesn’t matter.
It doesn’t matter because as long as there is any sliver of a doubt, the death penalty must not be an option in this country.
There is moral justification in capital punishment. The worst criminals should receive the worst punishment. Killers should be killed. The death penalty is certainly worse than life in prison. If it wasn’t, criminals wouldn’t trade a guilty plea to avoid a lethal injection.
The death penalty isn’t cruel and unusual punishment either. For those who have killed, it is a just punishment. If there were a way to eliminate all doubt, capital punishment would be just.
In our legal system, there is always an element of doubt, even if it is beyond a reasonable one. “Reasonable doubt” changes with the times and technology. What was once an accepted practice in science could later be proven false with new developments.
These mistakes can be corrected in cases where inmates are still in prison. The advent of
But you can’t fix a mistaken execution.There is a tendency to be ambivalent about this because it’s the kind of thing that seems to happen elsewhere. But you have to make the issue a personal one. What if you were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time? Would you care then? Imagine if it happened to a family member — someone who is a good person but has achieved a bad reputation. Would you be ambivalent then?
Executing one innocent man far outweighs the benefit of executing a thousand guilty ones. Any country that guarantees its citizens the “equal protection of the law” cannot allow even the most remote possibility that this could happen.
The death penalty must be abolished.
The Hutchinson News calls for abolition.
By Davina Jamison/Hutchinson News editorial board
“Colorado has the right idea, and one that Kansas should consider emulating, in its proposal to end the death penalty.
Before death penalty proponents write off the idea, consider this: What if the money being spent on capital cases – largely to cover the many appeals made on behalf of the convicts – were to be redirected to catching more criminals?
That’s the idea in Colorado.
Several states, including Kansas and Colorado, considered abolishing the death penalty this year to save money in the budget. In Colorado’s case, it would use the savings to investigate about 1,400 unsolved homicides.
It’s no surprise that the idea has sparked fiery debate. It’s one of those sensitive subjects, along with religion and abortion laws, that inspires passionate arguments on both sides.
But take the emotion out of the argument, and it makes sense to use the state’s money to beef up law enforcement to pursue men and women actively engaging in crime. Already-convicted murderers are at least incarcerated and no longer a threat to public safety.
It’s understandable that prosecutors want a tough deterrent to heinous crime, and that victims’ families might want to see the ultimate punishment.
But executions are actually rare in Colorado and Kansas both. Colorado has executed only one person in the past 42 years, Gary Lee Davis, put to death in 1997 for his conviction in a 1986 slaying. No one has been executed in Kansas since 1965, the same year the Clutter family murderers were put to death.
Meanwhile, it’s estimated that abandoning the death penalty would save $1 million a year in Colorado.
Think of what $1 million could do for unsolved case work in Kansas. It could give families closure; it could lock up dangerous criminals; it could even spare a victim.”
