Legislature to consider end to death penalty

[proud2BlibKansan]

Kansas will consider abolishing the death penalty next year as death sentences are declining across the United States.

Fewer people were sentenced to death this year than any other year since 1976, according to a report released Friday by the Death Penalty Information Center.

The report cites 106 new death sentences handed down in 2009, compared to 111 in 2008. Both are down significantly from a decade ago, when 284 death sentences were given out.

I am so glad to see the cost factor in this article. Fiscally responsible law and order folks should see the advantage of abolishing the death penalty.

In Kansas, seeking the death penalty costs four times more in legal fees than not pursuing it, according to a report released earlier this month. Figures were compiled by the state's indigent defense fund.

Imprisoning an inmate facing a death sentence also costs more, according to the Kansas Department of Corrections. It takes an additional $1,000 a year to keep an inmate in the isolation cell blocks required for death penalty inmates rather than in the general prison population.

http://www.kansascity.com/news/breaking_news/story/1639799.html

[Th1onein]

1. That's wonderful news.

I wish Texas would follow suit.