Reconsidering the death penalty

In this editorial, the Wichita Eagle calls for the Kansas legislature to respond to the Kansas Supreme Court’s recent decision declaring the state’s death penalty unconstitutional (basics here) by taking “a hard look at its troubled 10-year history.”  This editorial concludes: “The high costs and problems on appeal are making it harder all the time to see why the death penalty is worth having in Kansas.”

Relatedly, this editorial from Connecticut uses the planned execution of Michael Ross, the first person due to be executed in Connecticut in the modern death penalty era (details here), to argue that a “civilized nation should not adopt as public policy laws that give prosecutors the right to execute human beings.”  This editorial concludes: “The legislature needs to act to reaffirm human dignity and the sanctity of human life. Carrying out death penalties does neither.”