Topeka ? Kansas Attorney General Steve Six on Wednesday gave his full support for the state death penalty.

“Justice requires a punishment that fits the crime,” said Six, a former Douglas County state district judge. “Kansas has a responsible death penalty statute, and it should stand.”

Six’s comments were contained in a column he wrote that was sent to the media.

But a group opposing the death penalty disagreed with some of Six’s contentions.

Six argued that the death penalty is reserved for the most heinous murders, and that prosecutors don’t have “unlimited discretion” in seeking the punishment.

But Richard Ney, a capital case litigator in Wichita, said Six was wrong.

“General Six claims that the process in selecting which defendants will face capital punishment is principled and not arbitrary.

“This is contradicted by the fact that the Attorney General’s Office allowed a defendant in a Salina case to plead guilty for a life sentence, despite having murdered three people, including a child, while his office rejected a plea to life by Justin Thurber, who committed a single homicide. This clearly is the height of arbitrariness.”

Thurber was convicted this week in the 2007 rape and murder of Jodi Sanderholm, a 19-year-old Cowley College student. A jury has recommended that Thurber be executed.

Six also criticized arguments that abolishing the death penalty would save the state money.

The Kansas Coalition Against the Death Penalty has pointed to a 2003 state audit report that looked at 22 first-degree murder cases. The median cost for cases in which the death penalty was imposed was $1.2 million, compared with $740,000 for the median non-death penalty cases reviewed. The calculations included the cost of long-term incarceration.

The audit said numerous factors made death penalty cases cost more, such as lengthier court trials and appeals, and hiring more experts.

But Six disagreed, saying, “That study relies on data reported by interested parties — not actual costs — and projections that are acknowledged to be speculative. It also fails to recognize many cost savings associated with having the death penalty as a sentencing option.”

But the anti-death penalty coalition said the audit was based on data submitted by the attorney general’s office.

“Furthermore, the 2003 Kansas study is in line with many other studies from other states, which consistently show the death penalty to be more costly than long-term incarceration,” the group said.