Governor likely to sign death penalty fix

Sebelius promised to support capital punishment while running for office

? Gov. Kathleen Sebelius said she probably would sign legislation to fix a flaw in the state’s death penalty law that led the Kansas Supreme Court to strike it down as unconstitutional.

Sebelius voted against capital punishment proposals as a member of the state House, including the current statute, which was enacted in 1994. However, when she ran for governor in 2002, Sebelius promised to support the law.

A technical fix “would be the cleanest way to, I think, get the death penalty back on the table,” Sebelius told The Wichita Eagle on Wednesday.

But she added she is “reluctant to agree to some hypothetical bill.”

The Supreme Court’s 4-3 decision last week centered on a provision of the law on how juries in sentencing proceedings weigh evidence for and against imposing death. The law says that if jurors find the evidence is about equal, they must recommend a death sentence. The court’s majority said in such a case, the defendant should benefit and receive a life sentence.

The court’s decision invalidates the death sentences of six convicted killers, but the court stayed its decision while Atty. Gen. Phill Kline pursues an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. Sebelius had urged Kline to appeal.

Even though she has expressed support for the current law, Sebelius told The Eagle she still has the same misgivings about capital punishment that she did a decade ago.

“There have been way too many instances in way too many states where, I think, they’ve gotten it wrong,” she said.