Pardon Attorney Wm. Easton Hutchison of Topeka (Shawnee County) replies to Oxford, Georgia, resident W. R. Branham concerning the effect the state's abolition of capital punishment has had on murder rates in Kansas. Hutchison responds that he has no data on the subject and cannot tell whether there has been an increase or decrease in murder rates since the abolition in 1907. Hutchison considers the change in the law a change in name only since previous governors refused to carry out the execution order, he explains, making the original law ineffectual. Kansas abolished capital punishment in 1907 and did not reinstate legal executions until 1935. Prior to 1907, the state hanged nine persons under state law between 1863 and 1870. No state executions occurred between 1870 and 1932, although historians suggest that as many as ninety illegal executions (lynchings) occurred in the state during that period. See W. R. Branham to Kansas State Prison Commission, March 20, 1925.

Creator: Hutchison, William Easton, 1860-1952
Date: March 23, 1925