Kansas 2025-2026 Regular Session

Kansas Senate Bill SB245

Introduced

2/7/25

Refer

2/10/25

Caption

Providing that no person shall be sentenced to death for crimes committed after July 1, 2025, and creating the crime of aggravated murder.

Summary

SB 245 would end the death penalty in Kansas for crimes committed on or after July 1, 2025. In place of capital punishment, the bill creates a new off-grid offense called aggravated murder and requires a sentence of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for that offense. The bill also updates related homicide and sentencing statutes so that aggravated murder is treated as a distinct offense from capital murder, and it revises provisions governing attempts, lesser-included offenses, intellectual disability determinations, parole eligibility, and sentencing for first-degree murder and other serious crimes. Beyond the homicide statutes, the bill makes broad conforming changes across Kansas law to replace references to capital murder with aggravated murder and to align criminal procedure, offender registration, expungement, juvenile justice, child welfare, and licensing statutes with the new sentencing framework. It also preserves the ability to carry out death sentences imposed for crimes committed before July 1, 2025, and specifies that the new no-death-penalty rule applies only prospectively. The bill repeals several existing statutes tied to the current capital punishment scheme and related sentencing provisions.

Impact

The bill would significantly alter Kansas criminal law by eliminating future death sentences and substituting life without parole for aggravated murder. It would amend numerous statutes that currently reference capital murder, death sentencing, or related parole and expungement rules, and it would update collateral laws affecting offender registration, juvenile records, child custody and permanency decisions, and employment/licensing disqualifications in sensitive fields such as education, health care, and adult care services. The measure would also require courts and correctional agencies to apply the new aggravated murder framework only to crimes committed on or after July 1, 2025, while leaving prior death-eligible cases under existing law.

Sentiment

No committee transcripts or recorded votes were provided, so there is no direct evidence of debate, amendments, or partisan division in the available materials. Based on the bill text alone, the measure appears to reflect a major policy shift away from capital punishment toward mandatory life without parole for the most serious murders. The absence of recorded opposition or support in the provided context means the overall sentiment cannot be measured from hearings or votes, but the bill’s structure suggests a deliberate and comprehensive effort to replace the death penalty regime rather than a narrow technical change.

Contention

The central point of contention is likely the abolition of the death penalty for future crimes, which is a major criminal-justice and moral-policy issue. Another likely area of dispute is the creation of aggravated murder as a replacement offense and whether life without parole is an appropriate substitute punishment for the most serious killings. The bill also makes extensive conforming amendments to child welfare, offender registration, expungement, and employment-screening statutes, which could raise concerns about collateral consequences, administrative burden, and whether the new terminology and sentencing rules are fully consistent across the code. Because no committee testimony or votes were provided, specific supporters or opponents cannot be identified from the record supplied.

Latest KS SB245 Activity

View All Events: KS 2025-2026 Regular Session SB245

Companion Bills

No companion bills found.

Previously Filed As

KS HB2003

Establishing the veterans' valor property tax relief act providing for an income tax credit or refund for eligible individuals, modifying the definition of household income and increasing the appraised value threshold for eligibility of seniors and disabled veterans related to increased property tax claims and citing the section as the homeowners' property tax freeze program, providing property tax exemptions for certain personal property including watercraft, marine equipment, off-road vehicles, motorized bicycles and certain trailers, excluding internal revenue code section 1031 exchange transactions as indicators of fair market value, providing for certain exclusions from the prohibition of paying taxes under protest after a valuation notice appeal and providing four prior years' values on the annual valuation notice.

KS SB1

Modifying income tax rates for individuals, exempting all social security benefits from Kansas income tax, increasing the Kansas standard deduction and the Kansas personal exemption, increasing the income tax credit amount for household and dependent care expenses, decreasing the privilege tax normal tax, excluding internal revenue code section 1031 exchange transactions as indicators of fair market value for property tax valuation purposes, increasing the extent of property tax exemption for residential property from the statewide school levy, providing for certain transfers to the state school district finance fund and abolishing the local ad valorem tax reduction fund and the county and city revenue sharing fund.

KS SB2

Eliminating the income limit to qualify for the subtraction modification exempting social security benefits, increasing the income tax credit amount for household and dependent care expenses, establishing the veterans' valor property tax relief act providing for an income tax credit or refund for eligible individuals, citing the increased property tax homestead refund claim section as the homeowners' property tax freeze program, decreasing the normal privilege tax rate, increasing the extent of property tax exemption for residential property from the statewide school levy, decreasing the rate of ad valorem tax imposed by a school district; providing for certain transfers to the state school district finance fund, reducing the state rate of tax on sales of food and food ingredients and modifying the percent credited to the state highway fund from revenue collected.

KS HB2001

Authorizing the secretary of commerce to enter into agreements with major professional sports franchises to establish STAR bond projects for a major professional sports complex, providing for additional revenue sources, expanding the powers and discretion of the secretary and making other changes to the STAR bonds financing act to facilitate such projects, limiting the secretary’s authority to approve such projects to one year unless extended by the legislative coordinating council, authorizing the Kansas development finance authority to issue STAR bonds for such projects, transferring funds under certain circumstances from the state gaming revenues fund to the attracting professional sports to Kansas fund for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2025, and, if approved by the legislative coordinating council, for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2026.

KS SB6

Providing a sales tax exemption for sales of electricity to residential premises by municipally owned or operated utilities.

KS SB3

Clarifying the procedures and restrictions on accepting a nomination for an elected office.

KS SB7

Authorizing federally licensed firearm dealers, in addition to county sheriffs, to receive applications for concealed carry licenses and forward such applications to the attorney general, prohibiting sheriffs from assessing any fee related to application services and allowing dealers to assess a fee related to application services not to exceed $20.

Similar Bills

No similar bills found.