ACLU is calling for the death penalty to be overturned in Kansas based on two murder cases in Wyandotte County

Three experts in history and law testified Monday at the Wyandotte County Courthouse to bolster a case that the death penalty in Kansas is inherently unfair and racially biased.

The American Civil Liberties Union, or ACLU, is intervene in two murder cases underway in Wyandotte County, calling into question the constitutionality of the death penalty as a form of punishment. Kansas has nine death row inmates but has not carried out an execution since 1965.

The legal intervention is related to the criminal cases of Antoine R. Fielder, a 36-year-old black man on trial for the murders of two deputies, and Hugo Villanueva, a 35-year-old Hispanic man accused in a shooting outside a Kansas City. City, Kansas, bar where four people died. Both men appeared in court on Monday.

One of the key points raised in the ACLU’s argument is the method by which jurors are selected, a process known as “death qualification.”

Lawyers say the process produces skewed juries that are more likely to consist of white residents. Meanwhile, the arbitrary application of capital requirements disproportionately harms black defendants, they argue.

Furthermore, the attorneys say that black residents are statistically less likely to support the death penalty — and be excluded from jury service during capital punishment — in part because of the legacy of lynch mobs and police officers killing black Americans.

First to be called to the witness stand Carol Steikera professor at Harvard Law School who has written reports and books on the subject of the death penalty.

Steiker pointed to two recurring problems in capital cases that are of greatest concern: racism and innocence.

Research has shown that jurors are often “deeply confused” about what they should do during capital trials, Steiker said. She said the complex concepts are often difficult for her own law students to understand, and the average person without legal training is often overwhelmed.

Steiker pointed to a statistic showing that one in 25 suspects is likely innocent, calling that estimate a conservative one.

“If you said 1 in 25 planes would crash, no one would fly,” she said.

Witnesses to the history of racism in Kansas were Shawn Alexander, a professor of African American Studies at the University of Kansas, and Brent Campneya professor at the University of Texas.

Alexander discussed the long history of racism in government and politics in Kansas, dating back to the Civil War era. Despite Kansas’ rosy reputation that came from being a free state and Quindaro’s early settlement in Wyandotte County, racist practices like segregation are part of the state’s “legacy,” he said.

Campney investigated and prepared a report for the ACLU, presented in court Monday, that found dozens of cases of racially motivated killings of black men, sometimes by white gangs with police support, in Kansas between 1860 and 1930.

Monday’s hearing is the first in a weeklong series for which the ACLU will present his case against the death penalty. Closing arguments are expected in January following the conclusion of a report and testimony by a final expert witness.

In recent years, the ACLU has become involved in the cases of two other Kansas men who ended up on death row. In both cases, prosecutors took the death penalty off the table.