TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) A recent Kansas Supreme Court ruling declaring that the state constitution protects access to abortion has opened the door to a new legal attack on the death penalty.
Attorneys for five men convicted of capital murder argue that the abortion decision means the courts can enforce the broad guarantees of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” in the Kansas Constitution’s Bill of Rights.
The lawyers contend capital punishment violates the men’s “inalienable” right to life.
They include Reginald and Jonathan Carr, two brothers accused of killing five people in Wichita during a crime spree in 2000, along with Frazier Glenn Miller Jr., a white supremacist convicted of shooting three people at two Jewish sites in the Kansas City area in April 2014.
Defense attorneys launched the new attack on capital punishment in legal filings less than two weeks after the abortion decision.
