Kansas has an ambivalent relationship with the death penalty. The legislature abolished the death penalty on 30 January 1907 - when Progressives ruled the state. It was reinstated in 1935. According to Truman Capote in his book In Cold Blood the reinstatement was due in part to the rise of such high profile criminals like Charles "Pretty Boy" Floyd, and Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker, but the Progressive movement had begun to wane by this time as well. However, it wasn't until 1944 that the first execution took place, giving the state 43 years free of state-sanctioned murder.

From 1944 to 1954 the State of Kansas executed 10 men. But once again from 1954 - 1960 no executions were carried out in the state due to Gov. George Docking's opposition to the death penalty. At that time Kansas had five men setting on death row.

Before leaving office in January 1961, Gov. Docking commuted the sentences of two of these men, Earl Wilson and Bobby Joe Spencer, to life in prison. The remaining three men were Lowell Lee Andrews, who was executed on November 30, 1962, and the infamous killers of the Clutter family, Richard Hickock and Perry Smith, 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.

In 1972, the US Supreme Court in the Furman vs. Georgia struck down the death penalty because it could not agree on how the punishment could be carried our fairly and humanely. Furman voided death penalty laws in 40 states, including Kansas, and commuted the sentences of 629 individuals on death rows.

It took Kansas 18 years to reinstate the death penalty. With the rise of the conservative movement in the 80's, the Kansas legislature finally passed new legislation in 1994, which Gov. Joan Finney allowed to pass into law without her signature. However, while 10 men have been convicted with this legislation, in a time of deep economic crisis this legislation is costing the Kansas taxpayers dearly.

It was this theme that keynote speaker Same Millsap took up in his presentation.

Millsap was elected Bexar County (San Antonio, TX) District Attorney in 1982 and served in that office until 1987. During his tenure, Millsap prosecuted many cases using the Texas death penalty include Ruben Cantu who was executed in 1992. In December 2005, the <em>Huston Chronicle raised serious questions about Cantu's guilt. Millsap had sought the death penalty on the basis of a single eyewitness's testimony, who recanted that testimony in the Chronicle's investigations. The Chronicle also turned up that the investigator in the Cantu case had also arrest other innocent people in other cases.

Millsap has assumed personal responsibly for Cantu execution and the fact that an innocent individual might have been put to death for a crime he did not commit. In doing so, Millsap has become the only former elected major metropolitan prosecutor in America who has prosecuted capital murder cases to oppose the death penalty. He has campaigned against the death penalty throughout the country and has spoken at the United Nations on the need to ban the death penalty.

Millsap pointed out that the 2003 Performance Audit Report, prepared by the legislature's own auditors, provides Kansans opposed to the death penalty a framework to repeal this tax-consuming legislation.

The report states that "the estimated median cost of a case in which the death sentence was given was $1.2 million, compared to the same estimated costs for a non-death penalty case of about $740,000" and "the State will bear about 85% of the total estimated and projected costs for the 14 cases in which the death penalty was sought."

"When the Kansas legislature is looking for places to cut expenditures, the place to start is with the death penalty," said Millsap.

To drive home this point, Millsap stated that a death penalty trail in Kansas cost 15 times more than a non-death penalty case; an appeal cost 20 times more than a non-death penalty appeal.

He said conservative legislators need to be challenged as well as given some cover. Their argument that the death penalty deters crime needs to be challenged because this "quaint idea" has no statistical data to support it. In fact the data says just the opposite.

Millsap cited data that shows homicide rates in death penalty states are consistently higher than non-death penalty states. For example in Texas, which has executed 442 individuals since 1976, the homicide rate is 5.6 (per 100,000) compared to an average of 3.1 for the 14 states without death penalty laws.

Moreover, Millsap said legislators need to listen to the nation's police chiefs. In a poll of 500 chiefs, 57% said the death penalty does not deter crime and all 500 said it was the least efficient use of taxpayer dollars.

This is the cover the opponents of the death penalty can offer conservative legislators to get them to support repealing the Kansas law: It will save the Kansas taxpayer money.

Given the economic crisis facing the state and the announced intent to cut basic services and education once again, it would seem that saving money should prick up the ears of legislators.
KsCADP participants

KsCADP is hopeful that 2010 will be the year that Kansas does away with the death penalty once and for all. State Judiciary Committee chair, Sen. Thomas Owens, R-Overland Park, has announced that hearings on just such a proposal would start January 19.

Concerned citizens can begin discussing the issue with their representatives now. The KsCADP website provides background information as well as the Death Penalty Information Center that can be used in such discussions.

Millsap's keynote address will air on Community Bridge's After the Sunday Morning Talk Shows Edition on Sunday 22 November at 1:00 pm on KSDB 91.9 FM Manhattan. Below is a link to the podcast of the keynote.

MP3 File