Supreme Court Upholds Kansas Death Penalty Law

The Kansas Supreme Court upheld the state’s death penalty law Monday ruling that it is not considered cruel and unusual punishment under the U.S. Constitution, thus deeming the death penalty constitutional.

The issue of the death penalty was brought to the Supreme Court when a lower court argued that Kansas’ death penalty law inappropriately urged jurors to vote in favor of capital punishment in a case even if the evidence brought by the prosecution and defense weighed equally.

The majority of the Supreme Court justices disagreed with the claim made by critics of the death penalty who believed the law imposed “a general presumption in favor of the death penalty in the state of Kansas.”

The four liberal members of the court voted against the majority stating that maintaining the capital punishment law “is obtuse by any moral or social measure.”

Justice David H. Souter, one of the dissents, used the case of convicted murderer Michael Lee Marsh as an example to make his point. Marsh was convicted for slaying a mother and her 19-month-old daughter by shooting, stabbing, and slicing the mother’s throat, then setting her body on fire. The child died a few days later from severe burns.

Souter and the Kansas court argued that the death penalty statute is unconstitutional, as seen in Marsh’s case, because it may force jurors to enforce capital punishment if evidence of the brutality of a crime and extenuating factors explaining the actions of the defendant were equal in weight.

However, the higher court’s ruling upholds the court’s long-held stand that states should decide how juries weigh evidence in capital cases.

If you or a loved one has been charged with a criminal offense, contact an experienced criminal law attorney today.