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February 21, 2010
Tie vote helps keeps death penalty alive in Kansas
As detailed in this local article, which is headlined "Kansas Senate sustains death penalty," another effort to repeal the death penalty in another state has failed. Here are the details:The debate was emotional and the vote as close as they come, but ultimately the Kansas Senate upheld the state’s death penalty on Friday.
The Senate voted 20-20 on legislation to end capital punishment — just one vote shy of the majority needed to pass. It’s the second consecutive year that the Senate has considered repealing Kansas’ 1994 execution law.
Those pushing for repeal said the death penalty has no deterrent effect that justifies its high cost at a time when lawmakers are slashing money for social services and education. They also question whether it is fairly applied. Supporters of capital punishment, however, said the state must preserve the ultimate punishment for the worst offenders. Earthly justice and religious faith was invoked by both sides....
Ten men now sit on death row in Kansas. Their sentences would not have been affected by the legislation. If it had passed, the death penalty would be replaced by life without parole in future murder cases.
Critics noted that death penalty prosecutions cost $500,000 more than other murder cases. And Senate Vice President John Vratil, a Leawood Republican, cited nine death row inmates exonerated last year in the United States. Despite having a death penalty, Kansas hasn’t executed anyone since 1965....
Even if the bill had passed the Senate, House Speaker Mike O’Neal, a Hutchinson Republican, said it was unlikely the House would consider it. Asked whether he thought most House members would vote to repeal capital punishment, O’Neal was succinct: “No.”
Gov. Mark Parkinson, a Democrat, helped craft the state’s death penalty law when he was a legislator. That fact leads many lawmakers to believe he’d veto any attempt to repeal it. But Parkinson said Thursday that he hadn’t made a final decision on the issue.
One would think that, with all the other social and economic issues and problems facing state legislators, having what is essentially just a symbolic debate and vote over one rarely invoked form of punishment would not be a priority. But, as this Kansas story highlights, the death penalty is the kind of punishment that leads so many to prioritize symbolism and emotion over more practical needs and realities.
February 21, 2010 at 11:41 AM | Permalink
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Comments
i used to live in russia before where practice of death penalty was wild-spreaded untill 90-s, and i remeber pretty big number of cases when the person was murdered by mistake. we are modern socity with all our conversations about tolerance and justice, our humanism and other s.. like this. system of justice is never perfect, so death penalty must be stopped in every single state of usa.
Posted by: gershom@israel | Feb 21, 2010 1:16:45 PM
I have introduced the concept, "legal hoaxing." Because of scienter, it should be an intentional tort and a liability for the branch of government perpetrating it. It should carry exemplary damages payable to its victims. In this case, the victims are the estates of the murder victims. The legislature, the executive and the judiciary should lose their self-dealt immunities. These are for the most part, lying, arrogant incompetents whose products would improve once made liable in torts. I would like to see these arrogant incompetents pay from personal assets, to not punish the taxpayer as much.
Kansas has a death penalty, never used since 1965. Then they claim it does not work. This is in your face insult to the intelligence of the public.
Deterrence is an improper purpose for any legal remedy, unless it is to deter the defendant only. The idea of punishing someone to scare another violates the due process right of the defendant to a fair hearing.
Posted by: Supremacy Claus | Feb 21, 2010 1:53:44 PM
Your reference to priority given to consideration of eliminating the death penalty as "symbolism and emotion" over "more practical needs and realities" is a pretty clear indication of YOUR priorities, Prof Berman. You don't care much about the death penalty - as you've acknowledged.
Not all would agree that questions about when its OK for the state to kill people is of relatively minor importance. It should be a fundamental concern for any responsible citizen, regardless of whether they support capital punishment or not.
Posted by: Samuel | Feb 21, 2010 3:37:51 PM
Imagine rent seeking in your child's pediatrician. A hallmark of professionalism is self-restraint in the pursuit of economic self-interest. One has warning that a used car salesman will be maximizing the price demanded. One expects the member of a learned profession to put the interest of the client higher in priority than a used car salesman.
Your pediatrician makes $10 profit once a year, from administering a polio vaccine. If your child got polio and needed a respirator, the same pediatrician could make $1000 a day running the respirator. Imagine a pediatrician who needs a little money for a Mercedes repair. He does not administer the vaccine. Your child gets polio and will die unless put on a respirator, owned by his pediatrician.
What should be done with such a heinous person? Sue him? Wait 7 years, and undergo some risk he could win. No. The remedy to self-dealing with such catastrophic consequences to your family is to kick his effing ass. Get a bat, and break the ribs, so he punctures a lung, and has to be placed on the respirator in his own unit.
The lawyer is producing false, pretextual obstruction to the death penalty. This death penalty appellate business generates massive lawyer employment. Then he has the nerve to claim, the death penalty has deterrence effect too weak to measure.
Posted by: Supremacy Claus | Feb 21, 2010 4:47:44 PM
I do not disagree with you, Samuel, but this article from Kansas suggests that any repeal bill to come from the Kansas state senate would have quickly died in the Kansas state house. Plus, the state had this debate last year, too, to the same end. The issue here is not whether it is important for a state to decide if "its OK for the state to kill people"; there is little doubt that this matter is important. The issue here is whether committed abolitionists should keep taking up limited legislative time and energy to debate and vote on a matter that already seems settled in the state after extensive debate and consideration.
More broadly, if the state of Kansas would spend more effective time on other less emotional public safety issues --- ranging from gun safety to drunk driving issues to health care reform --- it could likely save a lot more Kansas lives than whatever choices the state ends up making on the state's (largely symbolic and barely used) death penalty laws.
Posted by: Doug B. | Feb 21, 2010 4:55:32 PM
"...if the state of Kansas would spend more effective time on other less emotional public safety issues..."
Small problem. Suppressing predatory crime is Job One and Job Last of government. Otherwise, there is no need for government. To increase public safety, there is good legal justification for arresting the defense bar, and the federal judges milking the death penalty appellate business like a cash cow. These are crooks, thievin' rent seekers, threats to the public safety by their protection and enablement of violent criminals. The pretexts they can generate to stymie the death penalty has an infinite number.
Arrest them, try them, and execute them for insurrection against the Constitution. Once they are gone, round up the violent criminals they are protecting for the lawyer fees generated. Execute the criminals under 123D.
Then deduct the cost of crime from the economy, because there will be none left. Have it jump to its more natural growth rate of 9% a year, instead of the paltry 2 or 3%. Have the value of real estate in high crime areas jump up by 50 to 100% due to the proximity to the downtowns of the nation. The virtuous cycle of eradicating crime can be glimpsed from the 40% drop in crime after truth in sentencing and mandatory guidelines reduced the discretion of the criminal lover judges. Boom times for a decade. Imagine if crime dropped by 99% because the criminals and their crooked lawyers were gone.
Posted by: Supremacy Claus | Feb 21, 2010 6:11:40 PM
Ditto to Samuel's statement about the professor's priorities - and obvious bias on the issue.
Bill Arthur
(glad to be a member of the "anti-DP crowd")
Posted by: Bill Arthur | Feb 22, 2010 12:43:29 PM
Prof. B. - Why do you posit that it is a zero-sum game? You seem to believe that frequent proposal of the bill in the Kansas state senate comes at the cost of proposing, debating, and passing other measures. I presume you know that's not how the system works. My hunch is that you are annoyed that death penalty issues get more media attention. (Mainstream media space being something closer to zero-sum than legislative halls.) But if that's what you mean, then you should say that instead.
Posted by: Punchy S. | Feb 23, 2010 11:42:45 AM
