The Legislative Coordinating Council of Kansas, a group of legislative leaders who represent the Kansas legislature when it’s not in session, recently authorized committees to study three aspects of the state’s capital punishment law this summer. Among the topics under review are the cost of imposing the death penalty, the state’s funding of the Board of Indigents’ Defense Services and its Death Penalty Unit, and the effectiveness of laws to ensure that mentally ill defendants are not executed. The cost study won’t begin until the legislative auditors complete a review of the costs of prosecuting death penalty cases, which is excepted to begin this month. The study results for all three reviews will be given to legislators during their 2004 session.
(Kansas City Star, June 27, 2003). See Costs.