Thursday, February 2, 1978
5
Death penalty rooted in history
BvLYNNKIRKMAN
Staff Writer
The gallows have been silent in Kansas since 1965. In June of that year, James Douglas Latham and George Ronald York were hanged. Latham and York had been convicted of the death of an Abobley man of a series of victims in a cross-country series of murders.
Whether the gallows at the state penitentiary will be used again is under debate today in the Federal and State Affairs Committee of the Kansas Senate. The committee current on it would authorize capital punishment in Kansas.
The Kansas House approved a death penalty bill Jan 19. Gov Robert F. Bennett
THE BILLS essentially would give juries the choice of imposing a death sentence or life imprisonment on persons convicted of murder. After first trial, they would aggravating or mitigating circumstances. After the first trial resulted in conviction, a separate jury would be impaired for sentencing. Any death sentence would be increased to the final judge's judgment and the Kansas Supreme Court.
Kansas has been the scene of 43 executions since its admission to the Union. The first to die was John Bell, an army private, who was hanged July 18, 1912; at
Only 24 of the legal executions were carried out by state authorities. The rest were authorized by the federal government or the military.
ALL OF THOSE THEORESE were men. And died by the age of 30, legal method of death. A man who has ever had sex has ever been
Capital punishment has been a source of controversy throughout the years, particularly as a result of recent decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court.
In 1972, the Court decided that capital punishment, as it was then practiced, constituted a crime with serious civil and unusual punishment. The Court cited the apparently arbitrary practice of
sentencing some defendants to die and allowing others to live. That decision effectively struck down all existing laws on capital punishment.
But on July 2, 1976, the Court ruled that the death penalty itself was not inherently cruel or unusual and could be considered constitutional in certain cases.
THE NEW decision reviewed several state statutes that had been passed to meet the requirements of the law and that the death penalty could be imposed if judges and juries received adequate information and guidance to make a decision on the death sentence in the particular case.
In a separate ruling, the court said that the death sentence could not be mandated for every murder conviction. However, opinions from the justices indicated that statutes very close to mandatory capital punishment might be acceptable.
Fifteen states have statutorily abolished capital punishment. Rhode Island abolished the death penalty in 1852. Wisconsin in 1853. The death penalty was abolished by the Second Amendment. Most recently, Illinois and Massachusetts in 1975. It abolished the death penalty in 1975.
OTHER STATES have chosen to retain capital punishment for certain specific crimes. New Mexico's law, passed in 1989, permits the death penalty only for someone who has been convicted for killing a prison officer, killing a prison guard who is on duty or for a conviction for multiple murders. In some states, there are exceptions for the killing of a police officer who is on duty or a killing committed by a prisoner under life sentence.
Since the 1972 ruling, 32 states have enacted legislation that follows the Supreme Court's guidelines. The laws of Louisiana and North Carolina were found unconstitutional leaving only those two states and Kansas with no capital punishment statutes in effect.
HOWEVER, THE SAYING "an eye for an eye" begin out as a cry for retribution but not as a threat to the victim.
in their arguments that capital punishment is just and a deterrent to crime.
Supporters for the death penalty often quote "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth"
In the days when the clan or family was the basis of the governing system, murder was not considered a crime against the public. Compensation by the killer to the family of the deceased was encouraged by the state to prevent feuds between the clans.
The state interceded in murder cases only when the clans involved could not resolve their differences. The killer who could not pay damages was often banished from the community, presumably to die in the wilderness.
As the power of the state grew, capital punishment began to be thought of as a deterrent. The death penalty was imposed for an increasing number of crimes. Two centuries ago, England authorized death as the punishment for nearly 200 offences.
THE METHODS approved for legal executions have been historically diverse. In the ancient Orient and medieval Europe, a criminal might be executed by flaying and robbing them. In the Middle East, the Albanian poison. Animals often were used as execution devices: The Romans threw criminals to lions and serpents, the Slamex to crocodiles. Horses played a role in drawing and quartering, and some criminals were executed on criminals to be tranmitted by elephants.
University Daily Kansan
Those found guilty by various societies also have been introduced to justice through crucifixion, the wheel and rack, a fiery stake and boiling oil.
methods of execution have also been applied along class and social lines. Nobility were often allowed the luxury of committing suicide or bowing their head before the gun, as long as they were guarded by the guillotine, however, a societal stigma was often associated with beheading.
THROUGH THE centuries, public executions were common. The bodies or parts of bodies were frequently displayed in the hope that the grisly sight might
discourage future criminals from committing similar acts.
the electric chair, the gas chamber and the gallows are the methods of legal execution.
Electroction developed in the 19th century, in response to a desire for humane methods of capital punishment. The first such execution was held Aug. 6, 1800.
Increased knowledge of human physiology has altered the process of electrocution from the clumsy early system that was often painful and time-consuming. An initial electromotive force sends 7 to 12 amperes of current through the body. Death occurs almost instantly, through paralysis or convulsions. The conscious consciousness in less than 1/240th of a second—too fast for the nervous system to register pain.
THE LETHAL gas chamber, developed later, is operated by releasing capsules of poison into liquid. The subject of the experiment is the person who uses the gas chamber, ironically, requires the cooperation of the person who is being executed. If the person fails to inhale deeply and tries, instead, to hold his breath or takes a breath alloweds, his suffering will be increased.
Although electrocution is most often used in the United States, hanging is the most accepted method internationally. In the days when a hanging might occur at a nearby tree, the subject often suffered for some time before eventually choking to death. With the use of a galous and heart-lung machine, the prisoner's spinal cord is swamped at the third vertebra and he does not die of strangulation.
Only one prisoner who was sentenced to death under the old capital punishment law remains at Lansing. He is William Zimmer, convicted 12 years ago of killing a young woman in 1965, and they are uncertain of Zimmer's future, should the death penalty be revived in Kansas.
But surely he is watching—with interest—the proceedings in Teopaka today.
"I'm not going to give up," he said. "I still hope I don't have to spend 15 years here. I think that someday I will be a constructive member of society."
Lifers...
From page one
"WHEN I CAME in I was very apprehensive about being here, but I realised I had to make the best of it," he said. "I had always wanted to write and play guitar so I've started to write poetry and I'm teaching myself to play the guitar."
"While here my goals have changed from monetary to self-enrichment. You have to take on your own responsibilities."
"I think a person's mind is flexible enough that you can adapt to any surroundings," he said. "Once you accept the fact that you are smart, you'll be more likely to time serve you the best way you can."
According to McClain, however, the years of routine and repression take an inevitable turn.
McQueen agreed that a lifer's biggest problem was a matter of mental ad-hoc behavior.
“It’s difficult to explain what it means to spend a year in prison and all the changes that have occurred. I said, ‘Add to that another year and another and another, and there begins to be tremendous pressures on you. Unless the person is very strong he is in for a hard
"IN PRISON the existence of drug addiction, homosexuality, alcoholism and casual violence joined with loneliness, bitterness, hostility and self-hatred can serve to grind you down over a period of years. Do not guess the primary concern of people is that we be locked up for a long time, regardless of the consequences."
McClain is a former student at the University of Kansas, where he studied political science and history. His soft manner and voice belie a powerful and imposing build, developed during the last three years in the prison weight room. His build has a distinct advantage in a prison situation.
"Most of the guards leave me alone. They aren't very comfortable around me," he said, his muscles bulging from his short-sleeved prison work shirt. "I don't know why they are so scared of anyone who uses better grammar than they do suspect in their eyes."
The prisoner-guard relationship is not as easily manageable for some inmates.
Glover said that Kansas Bureau of Investigation statistics did not indicate to him that the number of murders had gone up and that Kansas had an enforcable death penalty.
"FOR ME THE most frustrating thing about prison is watching what the guards do to others, rather than any pain or conflicts I experience," McQean said. "They talk down to you like you are a child and treat you with no respect."
"Some of the young guys can't handle that and end up getting themselves in trouble,"
State Rep. Mike Glover, D-Lawrence, said he saw no rationale or need for the death penalty.
The treatment from guards, confinement to a cell and the generally subversive role of the prisoner contributes to the feeling among some prisoners that prison life is only half a life and is often a life without identity or respect, Musselman said.
he said. "I just tell the guards that I am a man and I am not going to respect them just for their uniform. I will respect them as men if they show me the same respect."
Most of the lifers at Lansing are members of the Lifer's Club, an inmate organization formed to lobby for changes in the Kansas system and current penal philosophies.
"I think a whole man, a real man, is a man with two freedoms—mental and physical," Musselman said. "We only have the physical sphere is completely denied us. The physical sphere is completely denied us."
"We'd like to see the state institute a system of community based corrections facilities instead of building a new minimum security prison,"
"IF YOU DON'T give them your mind, at least when you have a chance; but when you're only half a person you don't have to see much to be left with nothing at all." he sweeps.
last year because there was no question as to its constitutionality.
McClain, who killed and robbed his boss, a Seven-Eleven store supervisor, said he sometimes thought about what his victim was thinking in the last moments of his life
"Thinking about it isn't very comfortable sometimes, but is something I can live with," he said. "It was a robbery, but I knew to go kill him. I didn't like him."
DESEPTE VERYETHING, McClaim said
DESEPTE very positive things he had
learned while reading.
"You get to know yourself, what you are and what you can do. It's been a maturing experience," he said. "You can learn the skills you need, but I wouldn't really recommend it."
Clergy testify on death issue
Along with Boyen, State Rep. Patrick Augustine, D-Ellis, a co-sponsor of the bill, said he thought the bill was a deterrent.
"There's a saying here that prison shows you who your friends are," McClain said. "When you come here people desert you. If you're married your wife will divorce you, your children forget you. It's a sad process."
One aspect of human nature that a prisoner quickly learns is that prisoners aren't popular, even with family and friends.
Staff Writer
Controversy . . .
By DIRCK STEIMEI
TOPEKA-Senate hearings on the death penalty took on the appearance of a religious debate yesterday as clergymen and clerks scriptures supporting both sides of the issue.
"I believe it is a sound bill," he said. "It has all the constitutional benefits."
The process wasn't as painful for Musselman, however.
"I feelI'm in northern Ireland, church against church," the Rev. Richard Wempe of the Shalom House, a Kansas City Catholic group, said yesterday.
Wempe and representatives from Catholic, Presbyterian and Uitarian organizations urged members of the Kansas Senate Federal and State Affairs Committee to reject a bill restoring the death penalty.
HE SAID the death penalty was appropriate for certain crimes and methods but should be used rarely and judiciously. He also said the death penalty is more successful in the House this year than
Representatives from three leading Baptist organizations and a Kansas law enforcement leader, however, spoke in favor of bishs reinstating capital punishment.
One, a Senate bill, which would provide for the death penalty for murder and several other major crimes including kidnapping and arson. The other bill, passed by the House Jan. 19, would reestablish the death penalty only in cases of first-degree murder when committed willy-less, or maliciously and with preemption.
From page one
"It still hurts to be here, though. If I made a million dollars today I'd gladly hand it over to anyone who would let me out of here."
"When this all happened my friends showed me nothing but love and understanding," he said. "They were very comfortable, and that's been a great comfort to me."
The House bill also provides for a two-jury system, the first to determine guilt or inference.
THE FEDERAL AND State Affairs
committee has approved two different
cashal押款 bills.
"I think we ought to put an asterisk on the bottom of our 'Welcome to Kansas' signs." Woody said, "telling criminals we practice the death penalty in this state, or maybe we shouldn't say we practice. We could say we're good at it here."
John Wooled, Salina police chief, hailed the death penalty as major deterrent to him.
Sen. Edward Reilly, R-Leavenworth, chairman of the Senate Federal and State Affairs Committee, said debate and a final vote on probity probably would be early next week.
House Judiciary Committee," he said, "had some obligation to see that a reasonable judge is impartial."
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