Death Row

There are now nine men on "death row" at the El Dorado Correctional Facility in the little town of El Dorado, Kansas. Any death-sentenced woman would be held at Topeka. (Kansas doesn't actually have a death row; inmates under sentence of death are held in administrative segregation.*) Lansing is the site of the state's lethal injection chamber. No executions have occurred yet under the 1994 law.

"Death Row" inmates are:

The Kansas Supreme Court issued a ruling in the Kleypas case, vacating his sentence; although his murder conviction was upheld, he will have a new sentencing trial. The Court ruled the law constitutional, but flawed in that it allows a death sentence if the aggravating factors presented by the prosecutor were equal to the mitigating factors presented by the defense. "Fundamental fairness" requires that a tie go to the defendant when it is a matter of life and death, said the Court. 
     The Court also found that an improper jury verdict form had been used, failing to make it clear that the jury did not have to arrive at a unanimous decision on a non-death sentence. The Court also found that prosecutorial misconduct had occurred. Because of the other issues that required the sentence to be vacated, the Court did not rule on whether this misconduct was of the level to require reversal on this fact alone. 
     Later, in reviewing the case of Michael Marsh, the Kansas Supreme Court ruled that the death penalty statute was unconstitutional because of its requirement that, when a jury at the sentencing hearing finds aggravating and mitigating factors to be equal, they must choose death. The Kansas Court's decision was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court in June 2006.
     Appeals continue related to all of the cases. Issues argued in Kleypas and Marsh will no doubt continue to affect the cases of others sentenced to death in Kansas.

The case of another individual sentenced to death in Kansas, that of Stanley Elms, who was convicted of the rape and murder of Regina Gray in 1998 (Sedgwick County), was settled in November 2004. Elms had been on death row since his conviction, and his sentence was also affected by the Kleypas decision. His attorneys struck a deal with the Sedgwick County district attorney's office, which agreed to drop the death penalty for Elms if he would not pursue an appeal accusing prosecutors of misconduct during the case. On November 20, 2004, Elms was sentenced in Sedgwick County District Court to a hard 40 sentence— life in prison with no possibility of parole for 40 years. 

A Greenwood County jury found Scott Cheever guilty of capital murder and on November 1, 2007, the panel recommended a death sentence. Sentencing is scheduled for January 19, 2008. He is the 11th person to receive a death sentence under the state's 1994 law.

    *Administrative segregation, which is used for other prisoners as a  disciplinary measure, is essentially solitary confinement for 23 hours a day. One hour a day, the prisoners are allowed out of their cells for exercise or to take a shower. When they are out of their cells for exercise, the exercise is done alone in a small wire-enclosed outdoor space. For meetings with their families or lawyers, death-sentenced prisoners are behind glass and tightly shackled. The death-sentenced prisoners are kept separate from each other as well. Until September 2001 they could converse with each other from their cells, but that is no longer possible. 

Kansas Coalition Against the Death Penalty
P.O. Box 2065
Topeka, Kansas 66601-2065
785-232-5958
kcadp1176@cox.net

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