Today's Wichita Eagle carries the editorial, "At least Senate had debate, vote," written by Rhonda Holman for the editorial board.
Under Kansas' death penalty statute, it takes 12 jurors to hand down a death sentence, which must be unanimous. But as Kansans learned last week, a 20-20 tie vote in the state Senate lets the death penalty itself stand as state law.
Because of House disinterest, that likely is the end of this year's effort to end the death penalty, starting with crimes committed July 1 and beyond, in favor of creating a new charge of "aggravated murder" with a sentence of life without parole.
Still, the Senate's emotional debate Friday revealed that support for capital punishment has weakened some since it passed the chamber in 1994 on a 22-18 vote. This time, 12 of 31 Republicans opposed the death penalty (compared with 7 of 27 Republicans in 1994).
State Sen. Carolyn McGinn, R-Sedgwick, deserves credit for bringing up the issue last year and framing a repeal as one way to help the state's fiscal problems, suggesting Friday that the savings could be invested in solving cold cases. Capital punishment's costs are secondary to other concerns — such as justice — but they aren't irrelevant, especially now.
And on its face, the statute has nothing to show for itself but the high cost of capital cases — an estimated 75 percent higher than cases in which the death penalty is not sought. Yes, 10 men are on Kansas' death row, including notorious area killers Jonathan and Reginald Carr, Douglas Belt and Justin Thurber. But their appeals are pending, with no end in sight. The state last executed someone in 1965.
The News Leader of Staunton, Virginia carried the editorial, "Death penalty not always just,"
State lawmakers running for reelection in November won't be able to tout that they were tough on crime by having been able to kill more fellow Virginians.
This potential setback to the lawmaker's political livelihood was dealt a huge blow this week when a bill to expand the death penalty to include accomplices, who don't actually pull the trigger, was rightfully defeated in a Senate committee.
Obviously buoyed by the swinging of the balance of power to the Republicans, proponents of the expansion must have been salivating to get a bill to Gov. McDonnell, who has indicated he would sign it into law. What he didn't count on was the testimony of Jerry Givens who was the state's chief executioner from 1982-1999. Having presided over 62 executions, Given admonished the committee that neither he nor they should have the right to decide who lives and who dies.
How right he is. We agree that giving prosecutors such discretion to widen the scope of individuals who will leave prison feet first is a dangerous slope that could lead to overzealous implementations based largely on the testimony of others involved in the crime, which could be dubious testimony, at best.
At a time when executions are being curtailed, why is Virginia pining to ramp up and widen the net to those who didn't actually fire the gun or thrust the knife? Perhaps we don't like the distinction of being second to Texas in the number of executions carried out since 1976 — we want to be No. 1! Why? Not because it is a deterrent, because it isn't. Studies have shown that there is no correlation between availability of the death penalty and lower murder rates. In fact, the opposite correlation exists. According to1997-2007 data from the Death Penalty Information Center, the murder rate in states without the death penalty was nearly 40 percent lower than states with the death penalty.
Earlier coverage from Kansas is here; Virginia, here.
Comments