Attorney General Kris Kobach wants Kansas to start using a new form of execution after Alabama used it for the first time last month.
With House Bill 2782, the attorney general is asking lawmakers to legalize hypoxia as a method of execution and to establish a deadline for courts to issue death warrants. He said the bill is necessary because Kansas cannot carry out an execution under the current law.
“Consequently, in a way, we are lying to the people of Kansas if we say that we have the death penalty, but we actually can’t carry out an execution,” said Kobach, who had a Thursday news conference ahead of a legislative hearing on the bill. “And that’s why the Legislature needs to enact to House Bill 2782.”
Why Kris Kobach wants Kansas to legalize hypoxia execution
Current Kansas law only allows one method of execution: lethal injection.
The problem, Kobach said, is lethal injection has become more difficult. He blamed pharmaceutical manufacturers in the United States and Europe that refuse to sell their their drugs for executions in the U.S., specifically mentioning Pfizer, which tightened its rules in 2016.