In 1955, the Kansas Legislature expanded the state's capital punishment law with Senate Bill 80 to include the crime of kidnapping. Since the death penalty was reinstated in Kansas in 1935, after its repeal in 1907, only persons convicted of first degree murder were eligible for execution. Senate Bill 80 limits the application of the death penalty to kidnappers who have harmed their captives, though in case of a jury trial the jury is to assign the punishment. While no state-authorized executions occurred in Kansas between 1870-1944, the state executed fifteen persons between 1944-1965.
Kansas Memory
Kansas Historical Society
An act relating to kidnaping in the first degree - 3