TOPEKA — Attorney General Derek Schmidt has requested that Gov. Sam Brownback call the legislature back into a special session. In a letter sent to Brownback, Schmidt said a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling could invalidate the state’s “hard 50” sentencing law. The law, which requires inmates to serve time for at least 50 years before the possibility of parole, was approved in 1999 as an alternative to the death penalty, which Kansas didn’t have at the time. Schmidt said if the state waits to change the law until lawmakers convene their next annual session in January, it runs the risk of convicted killers receiving lesser sentences. The high court overturned a similar Virginia sentencing law and shortly afterwards ordered the Kansas Supreme Court to rehear a hard-50 appeal in light of the Virginia case. The high court ruled that a jury, and not judges, should decide on whether to impose the hard-50. The Kansas law gives judges the authority to impose the hard-50.
Thursday, July 25, 4 p.m.
