Wichita — Kansas taxpayers could end up paying around $400,000 for the new sentencing trials for four Kansas men previously sentenced to death.
Last week, the Kansas Supreme Court ordered a new sentencing for Gary Kleypas, the first person condemned under the state's 8-year-old capital punishment law.
In the Kleypas ruling, the court faulted a portion of the law that jurors used when deliberating whether to recommend a life or death sentence. The court also faulted a verdict form used by jurors.
Atty. Gen. Carla Stovall said at the time that one or both of those problems also appear to exist in death sentences against three Sedgwick County men Stanley Elms, Michael Marsh II and Gavin Scott.
Resentencings would require choosing new juries, finding expert witnesses and, in Kleypas' case, possibly paying to move the sentencing to another county.
"I'm of the opinion that the public will support that cost," said state Rep. Tom Klein, D-Wichita, a member of the House Judiciary Committee.
But he added that he would expect opponents of capital punishment to cite the expense in arguing that the death penalty costs too much.
Defending each man in a new sentencing would roughly be about $100,000, for a total of $400,000, said Patricia Scalia, executive director of the State Board of Indigents' Defense Services.
In Kleypas' case, it is likely his lawyers will seek to move the sentencing from Crawford County, contending they cannot find enough impartial jurors there. Kleypas' first trial and sentencing were moved to Wyandotte County. He was convicted of the 1996 murder of Carrie Williams, a 20-year-old Pittsburg State University student.
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