Supreme Court upholds Kansas death penalty law criticized by bishops

Published: 2006-06-29

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- More than four years after the Catholic bishops of Kansas expressed regret at a state court's decision not to overturn the death penalty, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled June 26 that the Kansas statute on capital punishment is constitutional. Justice Clarence Thomas, writing for the majority in the 5-4 decision, said the Kansas Supreme Court had erred in ruling that the instruction form for jurors in capital cases was flawed because it required jurors to vote unanimously for either life imprisonment or the death sentence and set capital punishment as the sentence if jurors could not agree. That December 2001 state Supreme Court decision had freed all four men on Kansas' death row, but said the state's capital punishment law in general remained valid, prompting the bishops to urge abolition of the death penalty in the state. There was no immediate comment from the Kansas Catholic Conference on the U.S. Supreme Court ruling.

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