Division of the Budget
Landon State Office Building Phone: (785) 296-2436
900 SW Jackson Street, Room 504 adam.c.proffitt@ks.gov
Topeka, KS 66612 Division of the Budget http://budget.kansas.gov
Adam Proffitt, Director Laura Kelly, Governor


February 20, 2023


The Honorable Stephen Owens, Chairperson
House Committee on Corrections and Juvenile Justice
300 SW 10th Avenue, Room 546-S
Topeka, Kansas 66612
Dear Representative Owens:
SUBJECT: Fiscal Note for HB 2349 by Representative Schreiber, et al.
In accordance with KSA 75-3715a, the following fiscal note concerning HB 2349 is
respectfully submitted to your committee.
HB 2349 would abolish the death penalty for crimes committed on or after July 1, 2023.
The bill would repeal the capital murder statute and create the new crime of aggravated murder,
which would be an off-grid person felony. Offenders convicted of aggravated murder would be
sentenced to imprisonment for life without the possibility of parole and would not be eligible for
commutation of sentence, parole, probation, assignment to a community correctional services
program, conditional release, post release supervision, functional incapacitation release, or
suspension, modification, or reduction of sentence. The bill would also make several technical
amendments.
The Office of Judicial Administration states enactment of HB 2349 would still require the
courts to work through any existing death penalty cases committed before July 1, 2023. Judges
and nonjudicial staff at both the district and appellate court levels work additional hours to address
death penalty cases and, to some extent, have to delay hearing other cases. The Office indicates
aggravated murder proceedings would be less lengthy than death penalty proceedings. According
to the Office, a fiscal effect cannot be estimated on the Judicial Branch until the courts have been
given an opportunity to operate under the bill’s provisions.
If the death penalty were to be abolished under HB 2349, the State Board of Indigents’
Defense Services estimates savings for the agency of approximately $1.6 million a year from the
State General Fund in casework costs. According to the Board, these savings would not be realized
for a few years because of the time it takes to resolve existing caseloads of already charged or
convicted capital cases.
The Honorable Stephen Owens, Chairperson
Page 2—HB 2349

The Office of the Attorney General estimates that the bill would cause the agency to incur
additional costs of approximately $375,000 from the State General Fund over the next two fiscal
years. The Office states that new legal arguments may be available to those offenders who were
sentenced to death for crimes committed before July 1, 2023. According to the Office, there are
ten offenders who are under the sentence of death. This could result in those offenders creating
additional legal actions, which would result in litigation costs of approximately $250,000 (10
offenders x $25,000 per case) for those cases. Also, the Office of the Attorney General anticipates
that the bill would generate at least one U.S. Supreme Court appeal, which would require additional
expenditures of approximately $125,000.
The Kansas Sentencing Commission states that enactment of HB 2349 would have no
effect on prison admissions or beds. The Kansas Department of Corrections estimates enactment
of HB 2349 would not have a fiscal effect on Department operations. Any fiscal effect associated
with HB 2349 is not reflected in The FY 2024 Governor’s Budget Report.


Sincerely,

Adam Proffitt
Director of the Budget

cc: Vicki Jacobsen, Judiciary
Heather Cessna, Board of Indigents Defense Services
Scott Schultz, Sentencing Commission
Randy Bowman, Department of Corrections
John Milburn, Office of the Attorney General


Statutes affected:
As introduced: 21-5301, 21-5402, 21-5419, 21-6328, 21-6614, 21-6618, 21-6620, 21-6622, 21-6628, 21-6629, 21-6806, 22-2512, 21-6301, 22-3717, 22-4902, 22-4906, 23-3222, 38-2255, 38-2271, 38-2266, 38-2303, 38-2312, 38-2365, 39-970, 39-2009, 65-5117, 72-2165, 75-52