USA - Kansas. Senate votes to expedite executions

Senate votes to expedite executions. The Senate Judiciary Committee gave its second approval today to HB 2389, a bill to speed up the appeals process for death row inmates. The Chair of the Committee, Sen. Jeff King, R., said: "In the 20 years since the reinstatement of the death penalty, no case in Kansas has made it past even the 1st appeal". Senate Substitute for House Bill 2389 moves to final Senate action Thursday. It would put hard deadlines on when the transcript and court records of a capital murder case must be prepared, as well as when the appellate briefs are due. In order to help judicial staff members hit those deadlines, the bill would mandate that capital cases take precedent, allowing court reporters to file extensions for other cases to expedite work on death penalty cases. It also would limit the direct appeals process to 3 1/2 years, though King noted that capital murder defendants still would be able to access 2 other levels of appeals. "We're talking about on average of 11 years of time for these appeals to occur even if (HB) 2389 becomes law," King said. "We're not talking about a 3-year appellate process." (See also Jan. 27).