As you might remember, the Kansas Senate's Judiciary Committee has been holding hearings on the death penalty. Some experts argued that it cost too much, especially since nobody's been executed since Kansas reinstated capital punishment back in the early 1990s. They were met by families of murder victims, who said the fear of execution had helped extract confessions from killers.
Now? The committee has voted, 7-4, to repeal the death penalty. (It's not clear if all of the yeas want to do away with capital punishment, or if they just want to have the debate.) The measure goes to the full Senate for consideration, though there's no guarantee the larger body has to take up the issue.
