A bill that would have abolished the death penalty in Kansas barely died in a House committee on Friday afternoon.
The House corrections committee voted 7-6 against passing the bill, which would have ended the death penalty for crimes committed on or after July 1 of this year. The committee deadlocked at 6-6 with the chairman, state Rep. Russ Jennings of Lakin, breaking the tie.
“I’ve had conversations with a good number of people in my district. I’ve conducted surveys around this issue and their sentiment leans toward continuing with the death penalty,” Jennings said after the meeting.
“I’m here to represent their voice, and that’s what I did today,” he said.
There was disappointment among death penalty opponents who had hoped to get the bill out into the full House for a debate.
They vowed to press forward to bring the death penalty to an end in Kansas even if it might not be this legislative session.
“We’ve been in this struggle for a long time and we’ll continue,” said Sister Therese Bangert, social justice coordinator for Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth.
Democratic state Rep. Boog Highberger of Lawrence hoped there would be enough votes to get the bill out of committee. He called Friday’s vote one the most important issues the committee would vote on this session.
While the Legislature has passed laws compensating people who’ve been wrongfully convicted, there’s nothing that can be done if someone is wrongfully convicted and put to death, Highberger told the committee.
“I think our criminal justice works very well most of the time, but we all know sometimes mistakes are made,” Highberger said. “If we wrongfully execute someone, we can’t give them their life back.”
Jennings was credited for at least giving the bill a hearing in his committee.
“The issue is worthy of having a hearing,” Jennings said. “I had no idea when I walked in there today how the vote would go. I wasn’t shocked to have a tie. But the vote wasn’t what I though the vote might be.
“I was committed to the idea that we have a hearing, that we have a vote and we give people the platform to go ahead and have the opportunity,” Jennings said. “It was the greatest opportunity, the fullest opportunity they’re going to have through the committee process.”
The state currently has 10 people on death row. The state’s last execution was in 1965 for two AWOL soldiers put to death for killing a railroad worker during a cross-country murder spree.
Thirty states, including Kansas, have the death penalty on the books. Twenty-four men have been executed in Kansas since 1861.
The death penalty was abolished in Kansas from 1907 to 1935 before it was reinstated under former Gov. Alf Landon.
