Rep. Bill Sutton’s opposition to the death penalty was conceived through Catholic faith, magnified by conservative wariness of government and molded into a cause during more than a decade of service to the Kansas House.
A Wyandotte County judge agreed with criticisms of the death penalty, but he said the case was invalid because both defendants no longer face capital punishment.
A long-shot challenge to Kansas’ death penalty unfolding in court proceedings for a man charged in the deaths of 4 people at a Wyandotte County bar centers on claims the state’s process of jury selection is racially biased in favor of executions.
Cuyler Dunn/Lawrence Times
The one thing every wrongful death row conviction has in common is that the jury got it wrong, Herman Lindsey, a death row exoneree, said Saturday at the Kansas Coalition Against the Death Penalty conference in Lawrence.
A statewide group that aims to end the death penalty in Kansas will soon hold its annual conference at the Kansas Union, featuring a death row exoneree and nonprofit leader as the keynote speaker.
Jury selection procedures in capital murder cases discriminate against Black communities and individuals who oppose the death penalty because of their religious beliefs, lawyers seeking to overturn capital punishment in Kansas argued Tuesday.
The death penalty creates racially biased juries, results in wrongful convictions and does not deter crime, attorneys seeking to overturn capital punishment in Kansas said in a court hearing Monday.
A coalition led by the American Civil Liberties Union has asked a state court to abolish the death penalty in Kansas, arguing it violates constitutional rights, is racially biased and fails to deter crime.
No one has been executed in Kansas since 1965. Citing anti-abortion beliefs and love for Jesus Christ, several Kansas conservatives affirmed Saturday their commitment to making sure that status continues.
Since 1973, a Buhler Mennonite Church pastor said, 186 people sentenced to death in the United States had been exonerated. “What if we had killed them?”
