The Washington, D.C.-based Death Penalty Information Center, which opposes capital punishment, said in a report that fewer people were sentenced to death this year than any other year since 1976. The number of newly handed down death sentences dropped from 284 in 1999 to 106 in 2009, the report found.
In Kansas, Sen. Tim Owens, an Overland Park Republican, has scheduled four days of hearings beginning Jan. 19 on a bill that would eliminate the death penalty in the state. Kansas Attorney General Steve Six has called the death sentence “just punishment” in some cases and voiced opposition to abolishing it.
However, budget problems have more states talking about whether the death penalty is worth the expense. Seeking the death penalty in Kansas costs four times more in legal fees than not pursuing it, according to a recent report using figures from the state’s indigent defense fund.
The state Judicial Council’s Death Penalty Advisory Committee also said in a report issued earlier this month that it takes an additional $1,000 a year to house a death penalty inmate in required isolation compared with keeping him in the general prison population. The council, which analyzes legal issues for the state Legislature and Supreme Court, rewrote the bill to abolish the death penalty in Kansas.
Six said it’s unfair to put a price on crimes that merit capital punishment. “You’re talking about three or four cases a year, so cost should not be a deciding factor,” Six said.
SOURCE: Associated Press
died in the state after being infected by the virus, health officials reported. The latest two deaths included a 72-year-old man from northeast Kansas, and a 53-year-old woman from the Wichita area. Both had underlying health conditions that placed them at greater risk of severe complications from the flu, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment said.
