Posted: Mon 5:49 PM, Jun 24, 2002
Reporter: Associated Press
Updated: Mon 5:49 PM, Jun 24, 2002

Supreme Court Ruling Won't Impact Kansas' Death Row

The state's four death row inmates will get no
beneift from a U-S Supreme Court ruling today.

The court ruled that juries, not judges, must decide whether
someone convicted of murder should live or die.

The decision involves cases in which juries reached verdicts but
judges decided punishment. The court held that such sentences
violate the defendants' constitutional right to trial by jury.

The state attorney general's office said the ruling affect any
Kansas inmates, because juries always impose death sentences in the
state.

The Kansas law allows a defendent to waive a jury for a trial or
sentencing, even in death penalty cases. The ruling won't change
that law.

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