TOPEKA — A long-shot constitutional challenge to Kansas’ death penalty unfolding in preliminary court proceedings for a man charged in the death of four people at a Wyandotte County bar centers on claims the state’s process of jury selection is racially biased in favor of executions.
In an unusual court proceeding that began in October, a coalition of attorneys that included counsel with the American Civil Liberties Union asserted the law should be struck down because the practice of jury selection in capital cases dictated prospective jurors had to be willing to impose the death penalty to serve. They argued the system for excluding certain potential jurors disproportionately discriminated against Black people, women and people of faith more likely to oppose capital punishment.
Their objective of pre-trial wrangling is to use the 2019 murder case against Hugo Villanueva, who was charged in the shooting outside Tequila KC Bar in Kansas City, Kansas, to convince Wyandotte County District Court Judge Bill Klapper to declare application of the state’s death penalty unconstitutional.
Cassandra Stubbs, director of the ACLU’s Capital Punishment Project, said more than a dozen expert witnesses outlined for the judge reasons the death penalty in Kansas violated the Kansas Constitution.
“Every step of the capital process is rife with racism and error, from who gets charged to who sits on capital juries,” Stubbs said. “The expert testimony has conclusively proved what we have long known to be true: If you are charged with capital murder, you are effectively denied your constitutional right to a fair trial.”
No quick decision
Klapper, a 2013 appointee of Republican Gov. Sam Brownback, didn’t issue a decision Wednesday following closing arguments by Villanueva’s lawyers regarding the “death qualification process” applicable to juries in capital murder cases.
The court granted Wyandotte County prosecutors several weeks to submit written closing arguments. Villanueva’s attorneys would be given an opportunity to respond to the filing by District Attorney Mark Dupree’s office.
Those killed in the October 2019 shooting allegedly involving Villanueva were Alfredo Calderon Jr., 29; Everardo Meza, 29; Francisco Garcia Anaya, 34; and Martin Rodriguez-Gonzalez, 58. Five people were wounded. Villanueva’s trial is scheduled for 2026.
IN 2022, the Kansas Supreme Court rejected arguments state law on jury selection in capital punishment trials was constitutional as written. The justices at that time didn’t resolve questions about whether implementation of the law resulted in racial bias when selecting juries.
The Kansas Senate 15 years ago declined to advance — on a 20-20 vote — a bill that would have converted all Kansas capital punishment sentences to life without an opportunity for parole. Proponents of the bill said the death penalty conflicted with ideas that all life was sacred, while others said capital punishment didn’t serve a deterrent purpose.
Despite reimposition of the death penalty in 1994, Kansas hasn’t executed anyone since 1965. George York and James Latham were the last to be executed — in a double hanging — for the 1961 murder of Otto Ziegler, 62, in Wallace, Kansas.
The testimony
In the current Wyandotte County case, attorneys with ACLU of Kansas, the Kansas Death Penalty Defense Unit, Hogan Lovells, Democracy Forward, and Ali & Lockwood worked through a roster of witnesses offering insights into why they believed the state’s jury-selection process undermined fundamental rights.
Mona Lynch, a professor of criminology at University of California-Santa Cruz, said results of studies in Sedgwick and Wyandotte counties reinforced what national research demonstrated about death qualification standards for juries.
