Bill Summary – FastDemocracy

Division of the Budget
Landon State Office Building                                                                        Phone: (785) 296-2436
900 SW Jackson Street, Room 504                                                                     larry.campbell@ks.gov
Topeka, KS 66612                               Division of the Budget                              http://budget.kansas.gov
Larry L. Campbell, Director                                                                       Laura Kelly, Governor


                                                 February 12, 2019


         The Honorable Rick Wilborn, Chairperson
         Senate Committee on Judiciary
         Statehouse, Room 541-E
         Topeka, Kansas 66612
         Dear Senator Wilborn:
                   SUBJECT:       Fiscal Note for SB 21 by Senate Committee on Ways and Means
                 In accordance with KSA 75-3715a, the following fiscal note concerning SB 21 is
         respectfully submitted to your committee.
                SB 21 would abolish the death penalty for crimes committed on or after July 1, 2019. 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 SB 21 would still require the
         courts to work through any existing death penalty cases committed before July 1, 2019. Judges
         and exempt non-judicial 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
         states that there are currently two appellate research attorneys who devote a significant amount of
         time to death penalty cases. The Office indicates aggravated murder proceedings would be less
         lengthy than death penalty proceedings. However, a fiscal effect upon the Judicial Branch cannot
         be estimated.
               If the death penalty were to be abolished under SB 21, the State Board of Indigents’
         Defense Services estimates savings for the agency of approximately $765,000 from the State
         General Fund in FY 2020.
The Honorable Rick Wilborn, Chairperson
Page 2—SB 21

        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, 2019. 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 SB 21 would have no effect
on prison admissions or beds. Unlike some other states, Kansas does not have specialized separate
holding facilities or a “death row” for offenders. Offenders who have been sentenced to death are
placed in administrative segregation, which is a custody setting that includes other inmates. The
Kansas Department of Corrections estimates enactment of SB 21 would result in a cost avoidance
related to the acquisition of drugs necessary to carry out an execution; however, the Department
cannot estimate what the cost avoidance would be.
       The Kansas Department of Corrections states the current execution chamber is located at
the Lansing Correctional Facility and will be closed once the new Lansing facility opens in January
2020. Because the bill would not be retroactive, the Department states it would either keep the
execution chamber at Lansing, build a new structure at the El Dorado Correctional Facility
estimated to cost $493,000, or renovate existing space at El Dorado with an estimated cost of
$125,000. Any fiscal effect associated with SB 21 is not reflected in The FY 2020 Governor’s
Budget Report.


                                                      Sincerely,

                                                      Larry L. Campbell
                                                      Director of the Budget


cc: Janie Harris, Judiciary
    Scott Schultz, Sentencing Commission
    Linda Kelly, Corrections
    Willie Prescott, Office of the Attorney General
    Pat Scalia, Indigents Defense Services
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