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Death Penalty Opponents Give Reasons to Stop Punishment

February 26, 2009

by Cindy Klose  (TOPEKA, Kan.)

Opponents of capital punishment testified in Topeka Thursday in an effort to get the state to abolish the death penalty law.

Sedgwick Senator Carolyn McGinn proposed the bill. She says abolishing the death penalty would save the state millions of dollars at a time the state needs money.

Among those testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee was Sue Norton of Arkansas City.

She witnessed the execution in Oklahoma of the man who killed her father and step-mother.

Norton says prosecuting a death penalty case costs the states more than other cases, but the emotional cost is even higher.

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And she says, she was not healed by watching a man put to death.

Norton told lawmakers, "We don't have closure. That's what it's all about isn't it?! I don't have closure because now I'm dealing with another killing."

Kansas has had the death penalty since 1994 but hasn't executed anyone.

Ten people are under the sentence of death.

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