Kansas Facts

Kansas Facts

Kansas is one of 38 states which have the death penalty; only 12 states and the District of Columbia do not. The federal government, both civilian and military, also allows for capital punishment.
This is the third time that Kansas has enacted a death penalty statute.

	The state's first death penalty law was abolished by the legislature on January 30, 1907; for that reason, January 30 is celebrated by KsCADP as Abolition Day in Kansas.
	The state had no death penalty until 1935 when a new statute became law. The legislature's vote to restore it is attributed, in part, by Truman Capote in his classic In Cold Blood to the "sudden prevalence in the Midwest of rampaging professional criminals" such as Alvin "Old Creepy" Karpas, Charles "Pretty Boy" Floyd, and Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker.
	There were no executions under the 1935 law until 1944. The hangman took nine lives during the next 10 years.
	For six years, from 1954 to 1960, there were no hangings in Kansas except at the Army and Air Force Disciplinary Barracks. George Docking, Governor of the state from 1957 to 1960, was responsible for this hiatus. He was opposed to the death penalty, saying "I just don't like killing people."
	When Docking was defeated for re-election in 1960, in part because of his attitude towards capital punishment, there were five men on death row at Lansing. Before he left office in January 1961, Docking commuted the sentences of two of the men, Earl Wilson and Bobby Joe Spencer, to life in prison. The remaining three were Lowell Lee Andrews, who was executed on November 30, 1962, and Richard Hickock and Perry Smith, the infamous killers of the Clutter family, who were both hanged on April 14, 1965. The last executions in Kansas took place on June 22, 1965, when the state hanged George Ronald York and James Douglas Latham for the 1961 murder of a Kansas railroad worker. The two young soldiers—York was 18 and Latham was 19 at the time of their crime—had embarked on a cross-country killing spree after their escape from the stockade at Fort Hood where both had been imprisoned for going AWOL.
	On June 29, 1972, the United States Supreme Court, in the Furman vs. Georgia decision, struck down the death penalty because it could not agree on how the punishment could be carried our fairly and humanely. That case voided death penalty laws in 40 states, including Kansas, and commuted the sentences of 629 individuals on death rows.
	In the 1976 Gregg v. Georgia ruling, the Court said that the death penalty per se was not unconstitutional and allowed states to reinstate capital punishment if they followed certain procedural reforms including a two-phase trial and automatic appeals. Litigation since the penalty was reinstated has continued to raise significant issues about the fairness of its application. There were no executions in the United States from 1968 until 1977, when Gary Gilmore's death by firing squad ended the moratorium.
	It took Kansas 18 years to enact a new death penalty law, which was passed on April 23, 1994. Then-governor Joan Finney neither vetoed nor signed the bill.
	The current law took effect July 1, 1994.
	The Kansas Board of Indigents Defense established a Kansas Death Penalty Defense unit, with four public defenders who specialize in capital punishment issues. Its budget is $1.4 million a year.

Since 1994 there have been more than 90 potential capital cases in Kansas; capital charges were filed in 70 cases in 26 counties. Barton, Cherokee, Crawford, Dickinson, Geary, Montgomery, Saline, and Shawnee Counties have had 2 or more capital cases; Johnson County has had 5 or more, and Sedgwick and Wyandotte Counties have each had 10 or more. Eleven men have been sentenced to death; one had the death sentence removed at the request of the District Attorney, two have had their sentences vacated by the Kansas Supreme Court, and the others remain in early appeals. There have been no executions.

There have been 22 capital trials since 1994. Death sentences were handed out in eleven of those cases (see the list on the Death Row page). Ten men who were tried were not sentenced to death after trial for capital murder. They are:

Robert Verge in the deaths of Kyle and Chrystine Moore, tried in Dickinson County. Sentence: Hard 40 plus 19 years.
Virgil Bradford in the deaths of Kyle and Chrystine Moore, tried in Dickinson County. Sentence: Hard 40.
Frank Delterman in the death of Patrick Livingston, Cherokee County. Sentence: Hard 40 (prosecution didn't seek death in the penalty phase).
Richard Powell in the deaths of Mark and Melvin Mims, tried in Wyandotte County. In the penalty phase, the Court ruled him mentally retarded so the case then proceeded with non-capital sentencing.
Gordon Martis, convicted of first-degree murder of Alphonse Moore, second-degree murder of Jerry Seals, tried in Wyandotte County.
Jeffrey Hebert in the death of James Kenney, tried in Clay County. Sentence: Hard 50 plus 46 months, 12 months, and 7 months.
Cornelius Oliver, convicted of two premeditated first-degree and two felony first-degree murders in the deaths of Jermaine Levy, Quincy Williams, Dessa Ford, and Raeshawnda Wheaton, tried in Sedgwick County. Sentence: Life, two Hard 50s plus two 20-year sentences. Codefendant Bell was acquitted on four counts of murder.
Christopher Trotter in the deaths of Traylenea Huff and James Darnell Wallace, tried in Wyandotte County. Sentence: At least 50 years in prison.
Darrell Stallings, convicted in the deaths of Tameika Jackson, Melvin Montague, Samantha Sigler, Destiny Wiles, and Trina Jennings, tried in Wyandotte County. Sentence: Five Hard 50 sentences.
Greg Moore in the death of Kurt Ford, tried in Harvey County. Sentence: Life in prison without parole.

One man awaits sentencing in Montgomery County.

Does the death penalty protect?

The F.B.I.'s Uniform Crime Reports for 1997 show that murder rates in non-death penalty states averaged 3.3 killings per 100,000 population; states using the death penalty averaged 6.6 murders per 100,000.
    The Death Penalty Information Center's web site reports that while the number of executions has increased in the past ten years, the murder rate has declined. However, states without the death penalty fared much better than states with the death penalty in reducing their murder rates. The gap between the murder rate in death penalty states and the non-death penalty states grew larger. In 1990, the murder rates in these two groups were 4% apart. By 2001, the murder rate in the death penalty states was 37% higher than the rate in states without the death penalty.
    In 1995 and 1996, Kansas' homicide rate was between 6 and 7 per 100,000 population. Our neighbors, Oklahoma and Missouri, both of which have executed many people, had rates ranging from 8 to 12 per 100,000 in those years. Iowa, which has no death penalty, has a rate of just under 2 per 100,000.
    Kansas' homicide rate was 6.3 per 100,000 population in 2000, the 13th highest in the country.
    There is no evidence that the death penalty deters crime; in fact, many believe that state-sanctioned killing fosters the attitude that life is cheap and can lead to increased violence and brutality among citizens.

Can mistakes happen in capital cases?

	In January 1998, Gentry Bolton was charged in Wyandotte County on two counts of capital murder following homicides during two convenience store robberies. The two robbery/homicides were said to be part of a "common scheme" thus making them eligible to be considered as capital crimes. At Bolton's preliminary hearing May 12, it was revealed that police did not follow up fully on a December 31 call to the TIPS Hotline from a woman who had witnessed one of the shootings. The woman subsequently gave police a full statement about the shooting in March, but police did not follow up on her information. Less than a week before the preliminary hearing, prosecutors told Bolton's attorneys that testing indicated that different weapons had been used at the two homicides. On May 20, prosecutors dropped the capital murder charge in that case and amended the other to a first-degree murder charge.
	In 1995, Stephen Shively was charged with capital murder in the killing of a Topeka policeman. Although emotions were high because of the death of a law enforcement officer, the judge ruled that premeditation did not exist, so Shively was bound over on a charge of intentional second degree murder.
	Around the nation, more than 100 individuals have been released from death rows on grounds of innocence. (See The Nation)

What is the cost of the death penalty?

It is hard to determine the total cost of a death penalty in Kansas. Expenses are incurred by both state and local government. While some individual costs are known, such as the budget appropriations for the Death Penalty Defense Unit, other costs such as local and state prosecution and court expenses are not itemized.

Death cases are more costly from the very beginning. Pre-trial handling is different, trials are longer, and a separate sentencing phase is held. For example, in both the Marsh and Kleypas cases, 500 jurors were summoned each time, and all were paid mileage and the $10 daily fee.

In mid-July 1997, Saline County Attorney Julie McKenna told County Commissioners that if she exceeded her budget, it would be because of the capital murder prosecution of Allan White. At midway in the fiscal year, travel was already over budget and 72% of witness fees had been spent.

In March 2001, the Board of Indigents Defense reported that four current cases have strained its budget and the Board may have to ask the Legislature for a supplement to its $1.4 million budget for death penalty cases. The complexity of the current cases, involving multiple victims, multiple crime scenes or multiple defendants, makes these cases particularly expensive to defend.

The defense of Gary Kleypas cost $188,000. The defense of Stanley Elms, cost $259,000.

So far, Kansas taxpayers have spent $771,240 convicting John E. Robinson, Sr. The Kansas Board of Indigents' Defense Services spent $569,862 defending Reginald Car and $566,111 defending his brother Jonathan. These three cases depleted the board's funds for death penalty cases during this fiscal year, which ends June 30, 2003. In November 2002 the board asked for an emergency allocation of $600,000 from the state budget office. Because defense services are constitutionally required, the board is exempt from the state budget cuts that are currently being made.

Information from other states indicates that the death penalty costs more than prison. A 1997 study in Nebraska concluded that "adjudication of capital cases incurs additional costs that are significantly greater than the savings in incarceration costs realized from execution as opposed to life imprisonment." A former Texas Attorney General stated that it cost three times as much to carry out a death sentence as it did to imprison for forty years. The Savannah, Georgia, Morning News reported in January 2001 that small counties in Georgia are going broke prosecuting death penalty cases. "If you're spending $300,000 for a [death penalty] case, that's $300,000 that could be used for buying road equipment, paying salaries, or the fire and sheriff's departments," said Richard Douglas, Administrator of Long County, Georgia.

What do Kansans say about the death penalty?

A survey taken in 1994, the year the new death penalty law was adopted, found serious ambivalence about death as punishment. Although the survey found 85% initial acceptance of the death penalty, it also revealed concerns about its arbitrariness and a preference for other modes of punishment.

	87% said the death penalty is too arbitrary because some people are executed while others serve prison terms for the same crimes.
	84% agreed that defendants who can afford good lawyers almost never get a death sentence.
	53% believed the death penalty is racially biased.
	61% chose an alternative to the death penalty when asked which punishment does the greatest good for all concerned.
	81% wished we had a better way than the death penalty of stopping murders.

Based on a representative statewide sample of Kansas registered voters surveyed by the College of Criminal Justice of Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts.

What about victims' families and their needs?

In Kansas, victims' families have testified both in support and opposition to a death penalty. No matter their view on the death penalty, they all want the public to be protected from murderers. The problem with the death penalty is that it isn't utilized until someone is already dead. As the father of one victim said about the loss of his child, "...nothing you do will give her back to our family."

Some victims' families have joined together in an organization called Murder Victims Families for Reconciliation. For information about MVFR, in Kansas contact 785-232-5958, mvfrks@cox.net.

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

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	Death cases are more costly from the very beginning. Pre-trial handling is different, trials are longer, and a separate sentencing phase is held. For example, in both the Marsh and Kleypas cases, 500 jurors were summoned each time, and all were paid mileage and the $10 daily fee.
	In mid-July 1997, Saline County Attorney Julie McKenna told County Commissioners that if she exceeded her budget, it would be because of the capital murder prosecution of Allan White. At midway in the fiscal year, travel was already over budget and 72% of witness fees had been spent.
	In March 2001, the Board of Indigents Defense reported that four current cases have strained its budget and the Board may have to ask the Legislature for a supplement to its $1.4 million budget for death penalty cases. The complexity of the current cases, involving multiple victims, multiple crime scenes or multiple defendants, makes these cases particularly expensive to defend.
	The defense of Gary Kleypas cost $188,000. The defense of Stanley Elms, cost $259,000.
	So far, Kansas taxpayers have spent $771,240 convicting John E. Robinson, Sr. The Kansas Board of Indigents' Defense Services spent $569,862 defending Reginald Car and $566,111 defending his brother Jonathan. These three cases depleted the board's funds for death penalty cases during this fiscal year, which ends June 30, 2003. In November 2002 the board asked for an emergency allocation of $600,000 from the state budget office. Because defense services are constitutionally required, the board is exempt from the state budget cuts that are currently being made.