Now that Adam Joseph Longoria faces a capital murder charge, which carries a possible death penalty, in the killing of 14-year-old Alicia DeBolt, questions have arisen locally about capital punishment in Kansas.
It must be stressed that Longoria, 36, who remains in custody in the Barton County Jail for the murder, is presumed innocent. A conference between attorneys and Barton County District Court judicial officials Friday will set times and dates for the Great Bend man’s arrangement and preliminary hearing.
When the case goes to trial, there would be a guilt/innocence phase and a penalty phase, said Ron Keefover, spokesman for the Kansas Office of Judicial Administration. The jury would decide the verdict first then make a sentencing recommendation, which the judge is under no obligation to follow.
In brief, Kansas is one of 35 states with a death penalty. There are currently eight men on death row in Kansas (including Sidney Gleason who was convicted in the February 2004 shootings of Miki Martinez and Darren Wornkey in Great Bend), said Bill Miskell, public information officer for the Kansas Department of Corrections.
Kansas has no official "death row." All eight are held in "administrative segregation," seven at Eldorado Correction Facility and one at Lansing Correctional Facility. Under administrative segregation, they are confined to their solitary cell for all but one hour a day five days a week when they can shower and exercise.
The current Kansas capital punishment law took effect July 1, 1994. It was challenged in the U.S. Supreme Court in 2006, but upheld.
A 1972 United States Supreme Court decision struck down the death penalty. That case voided death penalty laws in 40 states, including Kansas, and commuted the sentences of 629 individuals on death rows.
The last execution in Kansas took place in June 1965 when George York and James Latham were hanged for the 1961 murder of a Kansas railroad worker in Russell County. There were no executions in the U.S. from 1968-1977.
However, a 1976 high court ruling said, as a whole, death penalties are not unconstitutional, and opened the door for states to re-instate their capital punishment laws. Eighteen years later, Kansas enacted the current death penalty law, which was passed on April 23, 1994.
Nationally, about 10 percent of the capital convictions result in executions.
According to the current death penalty statute (K.S.A. 21-3439), capital murder is only applicable when there are extenuating circumstances surrounding the case.
The statute reads:
Capital murder is the: (1) Intentional and premeditated killing of any person in the commission of kidnapping, as defined in K.S.A. 21-3420 and amendments thereto, or aggravated kidnapping, as defined in K.S.A. 21-3421 and amendments thereto, when the kidnapping or aggravated kidnapping was committed with the intent to hold such person for ransom; (2) intentional and premeditated killing of any person pursuant to a contract or agreement to kill such person or being a party to the contract or agreement pursuant to which such person is killed; (3) intentional and premeditated killing of any person by an inmate or prisoner confined in a state correctional institution, community correctional institution or jail or while in the custody of an officer or employee of a state correctional institution, community correctional institution or jail; (4) intentional and premeditated killing of the victim of one of the following crimes in the commission of, or subsequent to, such crime: Rape, as defined in K.S.A. 21-3502 and amendments thereto, criminal sodomy, as defined in subsections (a)(2) or (a)(3) of K.S.A. 21-3505 and amendments thereto or aggravated criminal sodomy, as defined in K.S.A. 21-3506 and amendments thereto, or any attempt thereof, as defined in K.S.A. 21-3301 and amendments thereto; (5) intentional and premeditated killing of a law enforcement officer, as defined in K.S.A. 21-3110 and amendments thereto; (6) intentional and premeditated killing of more than one person as a part of the same act or transaction or in two or more acts or transactions connected together or constituting parts of a common scheme or course of conduct; or (7) intentional and premeditated killing of a child under the age of 14 in the commission of kidnapping, as defined in K.S.A. 21-3420 and amendments thereto, or aggravated kidnapping, as defined in K.S.A. 21-3421 and amendments thereto, when the kidnapping or aggravated kidnapping was committed with intent to commit a sex offense upon or with the child or with intent that the child commit or submit to a sex offense. (b) For purposes of this section, "sex offense" means rape, as defined in K.S.A. 21-3502 and amendments thereto, aggravated indecent liberties with a child, as defined in K.S.A. 21-3504 and amendments thereto, aggravated criminal sodomy, as defined in K.S.A. 21-3506 and amendments thereto, prostitution, as defined in K.S.A. 21-3512 and amendments thereto, promoting prostitution, as defined in K.S.A. 21-3513 and amendments thereto or sexual exploitation of a child, as defined in K.S.A. 21-3516 and amendments thereto. (c) Capital murder is an off-grid person felony.
In the case of Longoria, the state alleges, Longoria "with premeditation," killed DeBolt "in the commission of or subsequent to the crime of criminal sodomy." It also alleges during that same time period Longoria engaged in sodomy with a child under 16.
A subsequent statute (K.S.A. 22-4001) outlines how the executions will take place.
It reads in part:
a) The mode of carrying out a sentence of death in this state shall be by intravenous injection of a substance or substances in a quantity sufficient to cause death in a swift and humane manner. (b) The secretary of corrections shall supervise the carrying out of each sentence of death and shall determine the procedures therefor, which shall be consistent with this act and the other laws of the state.
Lansing is the site of the state’s execution chamber.
In Kansas, there have been 25 capital trials since 1994. Death sentences were given in 12 of those cases. Of those, plea agreements or having their sentences re-visited resulted in lessor sentences for four of the cases.
DeBolt, 14, was last seen alive at about 11 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 21, leaving for a party. She never came home. Her burned body was found the next Tuesday at an asphalt plant west of Great Bend and positively identified the following Wednesday night.
Longoria was released from prison in Texas in May and is also a suspect in North Carolina where he allegedly called bomb threats into elementary schools.
