A political/emotional/financial whirlwind is brewing in the Kansas Senate over a bill that would repeal the state’s death penalty law.

The issue is one most Kansans—and politicians—haven’t had reason to consider for about 15 years.

Former Gov. Joan Finney—a pro-life Catholic—allowed the death penalty to become law because the Legislature passed it, but without her signature because she didn’t believe in taking a life under any circumstances. Not once in 15 years, though there have been many murders committed in Kansas that met the criteria for a sentence of death, has Kansas executed anyone.

Among the uglier issues swirling around the repeal bill is just plain politics.

The bill was nearly sent to a summer study committee to emerge into the spotlight of debate next year. That’s an election year.

A vote to keep Kansas’ death penalty statute sounds pretty tough on crime, doesn’t it? That’s why the issue could be a key to a campaign for attorney general or by a legislator in a district made uneasy and fearful by a recent murder.

Along with the politics is the raw emotion of a capital murder trial. Loved ones of murder victims become prominent and our hearts go out to them. But, capital punishment isn’t about bringing comfort or closure to survivors.

Murder is a crime against the state. Kansas law includes a death penalty because the state—on behalf of all of us—won’t stand for anyone killing a Kansan. It sounds ironic, but murder is a crime against all the people of the state of Kansas, not specifically the victim or his/her family.

Government doesn’t do individual “get even” punishment. You wouldn’t want it to.

Oh, and the peg on which the repeal of the death penalty hangs this session is its cost. It’s cheaper to lock an already-convicted murderer away for the rest of his/her life than pay for the high-cost defense on the single issue of the possibility of execution.

Not an especially noble issue with which to frame the debate, but in tight budget times, it is at least worth considering.

The whole issue is at once unpleasant, emotional, political, and intriguing in a “drive slowly past the wreck” way.