ACLU challenges death penalty in two Wyandotte County cases

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Suspects in two high profile crimes in Wyandotte County are at the center of a case that's challenging the death penalty in Kansas.

The ACLU filed the challenges on behalf of Antonine Fielder and Hugo Villanueva-Morales.

The ACLU argues the Kansas death penalty process is unconstitutional because it uses a practice called "death qualification."

That requires people serving on a capital jury, be willing to impose the death penalty.

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In a motion filed on Tuesday, the lawyers argue that the process of selecting juries for a death penalty care discriminates against Black people and women.

Fielder's lawyers argue that asking jurors about their willingness to sentence someone to death is discriminatory.

A survey in Sedgwick County, Kansas less than 3 years ago found that just 44% of Black respondents supported the death penalty, compared to 63% of white respondents.

Kansas reinstated the death penalty 30 years ago in 1994, however, no executions have been carried out in that time. Right now, nine men in Kansas are on death row.

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Fielder is charged for the 2018 capital murders of Wyandotte County deputies Patrick Rohrer and Theresa King.

Villanueva-Morales is charged in the 2019 shooting at Tequila Bar in Kansas City, Kansas that left four people dead and several others injured.