Topeka ? State lawmakers Monday opened up the politically explosive issue of the death penalty by introducing legislation that would impose a two-year moratorium on capital murder cases.

“There are serious problems with how our death penalty law has been constructed and used,” said Donna Schneweis, the Kansas coordinator of efforts to abolish the death penalty.

The measure introduced on behalf of Schneweis before the Senate Judiciary Committee would also set up a commission to study the state’s death penalty.

High-profile capital murder trials in Kansas over the past year have cost millions of dollars, draining the state’s indigent defense resources while also straining local budgets.

The capital murder prosecution of Damien Lewis, accused in the 2002 slaying of George “Pete” Wallace and Wyona Chandlee in Lawrence, is expected to cost Douglas County taxpayers $1 million.

That’s cause for concern for Douglas County Commissioner Charles Jones.

“I think the death penalty doesn’t exist outside the realm of economic reality,” Jones said. “Even the most staunch law-and-order advocates have to ask: What cases are pushed aside and what dangers remain in the community because we have poured so many of our resources into a death penalty case?”

Commission considerations

Similar questions are troubling some state lawmakers.

“It’s a concern to legislators,” Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. John Vratil, R-Leawood, said of the costs of death penalty trials and appeals. Vratil said he didn’t know when a hearing would be scheduled on the proposed moratorium.

The measure would prohibit for two years any executions or sentences of death. Since the death penalty was re-established in 1994 in Kansas, seven men have been sentenced to die but no one has been executed.

¢ Capital case tab could top $1 million¢ Recent death penalty stories¢ Stories about the double slaying of a Lawrence couple¢ Kansas Coalition Against the Death Penalty¢ The Death Penalty: A Kansan’s Guide (Amnesty International)

Also under the bill, a death penalty commission would be formed to consider:

l whether the race of the victim or defendant plays a role in bringing capital murder charges;

l whether there are disparities across the state in the way capital murder cases are handled;

l what the total costs are to the state and local governments for capital murder cases;

l and whether changes are needed in the law to ensure that no innocent person is condemned.

The seven-member commission would be appointed by Kansas Supreme Court Chief Justice Kay McFarland, Gov. Kathleen Sebelius and legislative leaders. The commission would provide recommendations to next year’s Legislature.

In the midst of questions

Aside from the extra costs to pursue a death penalty sentence, opponents have cited legal problems with the state’s law, which will lengthen the appeals process.

In 2001, the Kansas Supreme Court threw out the death sentence of Gary Kleypas, who was sentenced to die by lethal injection for the 1996 killing of Carrie Williams in Pittsburg. The state high court found fault with an improper verdict form and a portion of the law that jurors used when deliberating whether to recommend a life or death sentence. The decision means Kleypas will get a new sentencing trial, as will three other men sentenced in Kansas under the same provision.

“It makes no sense to use a system in the midst of these questions,” Schneweis said.

Opinions about the legislation from legislators on the Senate judiciary panel were mixed.

Sen. Derek Schmidt, R-Independence, said he supported the death penalty. He said if a study of the law was necessary, it could be done without imposing a moratorium.

Sen. David Haley, D-Kansas City, said he supported the moratorium because the costs to the state of providing defense counsel for indigent defendants were getting out of hand..