Topeka ? The Legislature’s debate next year over capital punishment probably won’t be limited to fixing a flaw that led the Kansas Supreme Court to strike down the state’s death penalty law.

The court, in a 4-3 decision, said a provision governing how juries weigh evidence for and against imposing a death sentence gives prosecutors too much of an advantage in sentencing.

Legislative leaders already had anticipated dealing with another issue: banning the execution of mentally retarded defendants. While the Kansas law contained a provision designed to prevent such executions, a legislative study committee has proposed changes.

Also, legislators and other officials acknowledge that lawmakers could discuss increasing the number of capital crimes, or getting rid of the death penalty. Lawmakers begin their 2005 session Jan. 10.

“Anytime you open the death penalty for debate — and I believe it’s healthy — you create the possibility for change,” said Atty. Gen. Phill Kline. “It’s unlikely the debate is going to be very narrowly focused.”

The Supreme Court’s ruling earlier this month centered on a provision of the law that says when the evidence for and against imposing a death sentence is about equal, a jury must choose death, rather than life in prison. The court’s majority said such a situation must be resolved in the defendant’s favor.

Legislators who support the 1994 law view responding to the court’s decision as relatively simple.

But, said incoming Senate Majority Leader Derek Schmidt, R-Independence, “There is a risk that a bill that would be narrowly tailored to fix problems the court has identified could get loaded up.”

The proposal dealing with mentally retarded defendants also comes in response to concerns about the law’s constitutionality. An advisory group of judges and lawyers who studied the death penalty law last year concluded it was out of line with a 2002 U.S. Supreme Court decision.

The decision, in a Virginia case, said executing the mentally retarded represented cruel and unusual punishment, making it unconstitutional.

“We were going to have to work on the death penalty anyway,” said House Speaker Doug Mays, R-Topeka.

Under Kansas law, to avoid execution, a defendant’s mental retardation must be severe enough to prevent the defendant from understanding that his or her conduct is criminal. Also, a person’s functioning must have been impaired at birth or in childhood. The proposed changes would remove those two conditions.

In the past, some legislators, including Mays, also have suggested expanding the death penalty to include more crimes.

One proposal narrowly rejected last year would make any premeditated killing of a child under 14 a capital crime. Under the 1994 law, the death penalty applied only if the child was the victim of a sex crime or was kidnapped for a potential sex crime.