Cost of death penalty defense merits law's review, senator says
The Associated Press
Saturday, April 26, 2003
Topeka — A prominent senator wants to review the costs of providing lawyers for capital murder defendants and suggested Friday if those costs could not be contained, Kansas should reconsider its death penalty law.
Senate Ways and Means Committee Chairman Steve Morris said he was concerned by the money legislators must provide for the Board of Indigents Defense Services, the agency that provides lawyers for poor defendants.
Earlier this year, the Legislature added $1.3 million to the board's $14.7 million budget, largely because of expenses associated with two high-profile capital cases last year. As Morris' committee worked on budget cleanup legislation this week, it added $2.2 million.
Legislative leaders already planned to appoint a special committee to conduct a review this summer and fall of the board's costs.
"I would like us to look at what's going on in our death penalty unit," said Morris, R-Hugoton, referring to the special team that defends capital murder defendants.
Morris said he was not sure whether the state could find a more cost-effective way to provide legal services to poor capital-murder defendants. Kansas enacted its death penalty law in 1994.
He said Kansas should look at the experiences of other states, including Florida and Texas, which has led the nation in executions since the U.S Supreme Court ended a five-year ban on them in 1977.
Capital punishment opponents often have argued the death penalty is expensive because years of appeals are generated by the standards set by the U.S. Supreme Court for protecting the condemned's right to due legal process.
Morris said if states like Florida and Texas could not avoid high defense costs, "I don't know how they can afford it."
"If it takes 20 years before somebody is executed, we just need to re-evaluate the whole issue," he said.
Costs approached $2 million for providing legal services to John E. Robinson Sr. and Reginald and Jonathan Carr.
Robinson was convicted in October in Johnson County of two counts of capital murder and one count of first-degree murder. The Carr brothers were sentenced to death in November for five murders in Wichita.
