WEDNESDAY: Historic Hearings Conclude in Case Challenging the Death Penalty and Death Qualification in Kansas 

CONTACT:

Emily Berkowitz, [email protected]

WHAT:

The final day of hearings in a sweeping challenge to the constitutionality of the death penalty in Kansas and the practice of death qualification will conclude on Wednesday, January 8.

The hearings began in October, with a week of testimony from historians and legal experts who highlighted the legacy of racism in Kansas’ criminal legal system, drawing connections between the state’s history of racial terror and its application of the death penalty today. Experts also spoke to the problems with jury selection in capital cases, and how death qualification – the exclusion of people who oppose the death penalty from juries – undermines the constitutional right to a fair and impartial jury.

On Wednesday, the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Kansas, the Kansas Death Penalty Unit, Hogan Lovells, Ali & Lockwood, and Democracy Forward will present their final expert, Professor Mona Lynch, before closing arguments. Professor Lynch will testify about her studies on death qualification in Kansas.

WHEN:

The hearing will take place on Wednesday, January 8, at 9 a.m. CT/10 a.m. ET.

WHERE:

Wyandotte County Courthouse, Div. 6
710 N 7th St
Kansas City, KS 66101

WHO:

• Cassandra Stubbs, director of the ACLU’s Capital Punishment Project
• Megan Byrne, staff attorney at the ACLU’s Capital Punishment Project
• Professor Mona Lynch, Professor of Criminology, Law and Society at the University of California, Irvine and expert on death qualification

The legal team will be available for interviews after the hearing concludes.

# # #

About the ACLU of Kansas: The ACLU of Kansas is the statewide affiliate of the national American Civil Liberties Union (www.aclu.org). The ACLU of Kansas is dedicated to preserving and advancing the civil rights and legal freedoms guaranteed by the United States Constitution and the Bill of Rights. For more information, visit our website at www.aclukansas.org.