report of the kansas judicial council death penalty advisory

Michael Kaye, Topeka, Professor at Washburn University School of Law.
Jared S. Maag, Topeka, Assistant Attorney General in the Criminal Litigation Division.
Stephen Morris, Hugoton, State Senator from the 39th district and Chair of the Senate
Ways and Means Committee.
Donald R. Noland, Pittsburg, District Court Judge in 11th Judicial District.
Steven Obermeier, Olathe, Assistant district attorney in Johnson County.
Kim T. Parker, Wichita, Assistant district attorney in Sedgwick County.
Rick Rehorn, Kansas City, practicing attorney in Wyandotte County and State
Representative from the 32nd district.
Fred N. Six, Lawrence, retired Kansas Supreme Court Justice.
Ron Wurtz, Topeka, Deputy Federal Public Defender. Previously Chief Defender,
Kansas Death Penalty Defense Unit.
SCOPE AND METHOD OF THE STUDY
2004.
The Committee met four times, beginning in August of 2004, and ending in November of
In discussing the scope of the study and the methodology to be used in the study, the
Committee considered Senator Vratil’s request in which he acknowledged the difficulty of answering
some of the questions, requested the report be completed prior to the 2005 legislative session and
stated that the report need not be lengthy.
The Committee was provided preliminary research on each of the issues and the individual
issues were assigned to one or two Committee members for drafting, with the exception of issue 5
relating to deterrent value of the death penalty, which was prepared by the entire Committee.
Readers of the report may note differences in the style of the report on the various questions. This
is because the Committee responses to the individual issues were prepared by different members.
In addition to reviewing the preliminary research, the Committee reviewed the drafts of the
responses to the questions, suggested changes and approved each of them.
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