Death penalty opponents introduce bill to abolish executions based on cost


By Scott Rothschild
February 5, 2009
TOPEKA — Death penalty opponents in Kansas have criticized capital 
punishment, saying it is unfair and pointing to instances around the 
country where innocent people were wrongly sentenced to death.

On Thursday, they took a different strategy when introducing 
legislation to abolish the Kansas death penalty. They said that, 
given the current budget problems, the death penalty was too 
expensive and unnecessary.

“I know this session everyone is scrambling to find resources to fund 
things that the state needs, and now that we have life in prison 
without parole, the question is what does the death penalty get us 
that life without parole doesn’t,” said Donna Schneweis with Amnesty 
International and the Kansas Coalition Against the Death Penalty.

State lawmakers are looking for ways to bridge a nearly $200 million 
budget shortfall.

There have been no executions in Kansas since the state re-
established the death penalty in 1994. There are 10 men awaiting the 
death sentence in Kansas.

In a 2003 state audit report that looked at 22 first-degree murder 
cases, the median cost for cases in which the death penalty was 
imposed was $1.2 million, compared with $740,000 for the median non-
death penalty cases reviewed. The report said numerous factors made 
death penalty cases cost more, such as lengthier court trials and 
appeals, and hiring more experts.

Senate Bill 208 would abolish the death penalty, but it would not 
apply to those already sentenced to death.

http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2009/feb/05/death-penalty-opponents-
introduce-bill-abolish-exe/