Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty

Kansas

Kansas reinstated the death penalty in 1994. Errors, high costs, and delay have plagued the system ever since. A number of Kansas Republicans and conservatives, in response to this broken system, have joined efforts to repeal the death penalty. Their reasons include its high cost, concerns over executing an innocent person, and the contradiction between the death penalty and a culture of life. More and more Kansas conservatives are voicing frustrations and concerns about the death penalty, joining a growing chorus of conservatives around the country.

What Kansas Conservatives are Saying

"I would prefer that Kansas repeals the death penalty and replaces it with life in prison without parole rather than try to expedite executions. As someone who is strongly committed to protecting life from conception to natural death, I want to be sure that Kansas passes legislation that promotes a culture of life.”
Republican State Representative Bill Sutton
"The Kansas Federation of College Republicans, representing every major university in the state and many other postsecondary institutions, unanimously voted as an organization ... to oppose the death penalty in Kansas and call for its repeal.... We simply cannot support a policy that would endanger even one innocent life."
Dalton Glasscock, Chairman, Sedgwick County Republican Party
"If we, as conservatives, are serious about cutting costs and promoting a culture of life, then our position on the death penalty is a no-brainer. Repeal it."
Chase Blasi, Legislative Director for the Kansas State Senate President
“The concern I have about the death penalty is that government can determine value of life and can decide to end it or sustain it…. God determines the value of each of us.”
Former Republican State Representative Anthony Brown
"America’s system of capital punishment is not only a fiscally liberal bridge to nowhere – it is a bridge built from the crooked timber of humanity."
Ian Huyett, Associate Editor at the Libertarian Republic and Former President of the Kansas State Young Americans for Liberty
"By a two-thirds majority vote, the Republican Liberty Caucus of Kansas passed a resolution to replace the death penalty with life in prison without possibility of parole. I'm proud that we endorsed this position. Given the government's history and real potential of abusing the power to execute - most evident when an innocent citizen faces a death sentence - we simply should not give government this power."
Dave Thomas, Former Chair of the Republican Liberty Caucus of Kansas
"Given the challenges that local and state budgets are facing, it does not make fiscal sense to keep the death penalty. A handful of capital cases cost taxpayers millions of dollars but do nothing to make us safer. Life in prison without parole is a proven alternative to the death penalty that is less expensive and, most importantly, more in line with promoting a culture of life."
Trey Joy, Former Republican Mayor of Smith Center, KS

Information and resources