TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) - A botched execution in neighboring Oklahoma isn’t causing Kansas legislators to reconsider a proposal to expedite appeals in capital murder cases.
Republican Sen. Jeff King, of Independence, and GOP Rep. John Rubin, of Shawnee, said Wednesday that the problems with Tuesday’s execution in Oklahoma demonstrate the need to ensure that Kansas’ process prevents similar incidents. But they also said the bill dealing with death penalty appeals still would allow a thorough review of defendants’ cases without permitting them to drag out.
King, the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman, and Rubin, who leads the House Corrections and Juvenile Justice Committee, helped draft a compromise between the two chambers on the legislation. The House planned to take a crucial procedural vote as early as Thursday to determine whether the compromise is considered in both chambers.
Republican Gov. Sam Brownback said “it’s probably worth looking at” the state’s execution process. Department of Corrections spokesman Jeremy Barclay said the agency already had planned such a review when an execution drew closer. None of the nine men currently on death row are expected to face lethal injection for at least several more years.
In Oklahoma, convicted killer Clayton Lockett was declared unconscious Tuesday after the administration of the first of three drugs for his lethal injection but began breathing heavily, clenching his teeth and straining to lift his head. His execution was halted, though he later died of an apparent heart attack.
“It just re-emphasizes how meticulous we have to be when we’re dealing with death penalty cases,” Rubin said.
But capital punishment opponents immediately saw the botched execution as an example of why Kansas should not attempt to expedite death penalty appeals.
“In our judicial system, mistakes are made. What happened in Oklahoma is an example of that,” said Rep. Steven Becker, a Buhler Republican and former district court judge. “We shouldn’t be streamlining the process to get to executions sooner than we do.”
Kansas enacted its current death penalty law in 1994, and the first capital case under it arose from a 1996 killing. But the state hasn’t carried out an execution since 1965, hangings under a previous law struck down by the federal courts. The Kansas Supreme Court, which must review every case, has overturned death sentences five times since the new law took effect.
The compromise legislation would give attorneys less than a year to file their legal arguments with the state Supreme Court in capital cases and limit their length. The measure also would give the high court a year after those filings are finished to issue a decision, though the justices would have some discretion to extend deadlines.
King said that even if the measure is enacted, appeals in capital murder cases still would probably take 11 years. He acknowledged that Oklahoma’s botched execution shows the need to ensure that the procedure is “humane and foolproof.”
But he added, “I don’t think that changes the need to ensure that decisions of Kansas juries, properly affirmed on appeal, are followed.”
Barclay said the Department of Corrections has no supply of lethal-injection drugs because if it did, those drugs would expire before an execution is scheduled. He said once an execution is closer, the department will examine what drugs to use and how they’re administered.
“We’d have a process to go through,” he said.
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Online:
Kansas Legislature: https://www.kslegislature.org
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