Kansas Rep. Bill Sutton, Image via Screengrab.

OVERLAND PARK — Rep. Bill Sutton’s opposition to the death penalty was conceived through Catholic faith, magnified by conservative wariness of government and molded into a cause during more than a decade of service to the Kansas House.

Sutton, a Gardner Republican representing a district spread across southern Johnson and Douglas counties, endorsed all five bills introduced in the Legislature since 2017 to repeal capital punishment in Kansas.

During a Saturday forum organized by the Kansas Coalition Against the Death Penalty, Sutton echoed the belief of other panelists that retention of the death penalty in Kansas was inconsistent with “pro-life” ideals. There was an unacceptable risk the government could put to death innocent people, he said. And, he said, the status quo forced taxpayers to swallow the exorbitant cost of trials and appeals in capital murder cases.

“You don’t have to be a bleeding heart to hate the death penalty. This thing has flaws all over the place,” Sutton said. “I have absolutely zero qualms about being against the death penalty. It’s illogical. It’s expensive. It’s inconsistent with my beliefs.”

From 1973 to 2024, courts in the United States exonerated 200 people who had previously been sentenced to death. Nationally, about 2,100 men and women remain incarcerated on death sentences. Forty-four people have been executed in this country during 2025.

Kansas hasn’t executed anyone since 1965. Capital punishment was banned in Kansas from 1972 to 1994. While 15 men have been sentenced to death in this state since 1994, only nine await execution by lethal injection. The state hasn’t had a death row exoneration in Kansas, but since the state reimposed capital punishment two of the 15 died of old age and four were resentenced to life after plea negotiations during the appellate process.

For an audience at Johnson County Community College that included Republican and Democratic state legislators, Sutton said the Catholic Church instilled in him a belief that all life was sacred. This piece of religious instruction most often is expressed by politicians when debating whether the state should end access to abortion, he said. But, he added, politicians had a tendency to justify the punishment of death by placing a qualifier on their pro-life view.

“I treat life as sacred. That means when it’s young and cute and cuddly. Absolutely. That means when it’s old. Sure. That means when it is ugly and sick. Yeah. And, that means when it does tremendously heinous things,” he said.

‘Treated with dignity’

Death penalty opponents who took part in the forum included Nan Tolson, director of Texas Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty, and Krisanne Vaillancourt Murphy, executive director of the Catholic Mobilizing Network.

Tolson, who worked for Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, said the Texas organization dedicated to ending capital punishment was founded in 2013. It has granted political and social conservatives a safe place to consider how the death penalty intersected with their principles and values, she said.

“More and more conservatives are recognizing that the death penalty is incompatible with pro-life values,” she said. “We have a moral obligation to respect all life, whether innocent or guilty.”

She said the death penalty was regrettably viewed as a liberal or progressive issue, but it was folly to put a partisan label on a topic everyone should care about deeply. She said, so far, 17 death penalty exonerations had occurred in Texas.

“Those are the just the ones that we have caught, and there’s strong evidence that many states have actually executed people that were innocent,” Tolson said.

She said defenders of capital punishment argued removal of the ultimate penalty undermined law enforcement. In response, she said, death penalty critics should insist that abolition of the death penalty was a tough-on-crime position.

“Lean into that messaging a little bit and say, ‘We’re so proud to be tough on crime that we’re willing to look critically at our justice system and be able to recognize when things are working and when things are not,’ ” Tolson said.

Murphy, executive director of the national Catholic organization working to dismantle capital punishment, said the reform process required education, advocacy and prayer. The goal should be to replace sentences of death with restorative justice that brought healing to perpetrators and victims, she said.

“We believe that, no matter the harm someone has caused or suffered, they deserve to be treated with dignity,” Murphy said. “Core to our faith understanding is that God has bestowed a sacred dignity on each and every person.”

She said surveys of Catholics revealed that young adults in their 20s were more likely to be consistent in application of a “life ethic” and that could help move America away from capital punishment.

“I think they are the generation that’s going to help end the death penalty,” she said.

Budget ‘black hole’

The closest Kansas came in the past 15 years to repeal of capital punishment was a 20-20 vote in the Kansas Senate in 2010. Senators deadlocked on a bill that would have replaced death sentences with life in prison without a chance at parole.

Donna Schneweis, chair of the Kansas Coalition Against the Death Penalty, said bills in the Senate and House introduced during 2025 would remain in play during the 2026 session. House Bill 2272 and Senate Bill 245 would abolish the death penalty for crimes committed after July 1, 2025. The capital murder statute would be replaced by a new crime of aggravated murder, which would have a sentence of imprisonment for life without parole.

However, Schneweis said, neither the House nor Senate judiciary committees held hearings on the legislation during the the 2025 session.

Sutton said members of the Legislature should consider issues beyond personal faith. He said application of capital punishment created a “fiscal black hole,” because a Kansas death penalty case might cost three to four times more than a typical murder case.

The Kansas State Board of Indigents’ Defense Services estimated the potential savings of not handling new death-penalty-eligible cases could reach $5 million annually.

“From a fiscal standpoint, this thing is a nonstarter,” Sutton said. “We spend money. We achieve absolutely nothing.”

He also fretted about the enormous power entrusted to district and county attorneys to fairly make use of death penalty statutes. He said prosecutors were filing capital charges to entice defendants to take guilty pleas in a quest to save time and money.

“Justice should be steering this process, not leverage. The death penalty is leverage for the justice system. And that’s backward,” Sutton said.