George Docking

George Docking was governor of Kansas from 1957 through 1960 and an outspoken opponent of Capital punishment. His resistance to executions interrupted their use in the state for six years; shortly before leaving office, he commuted two death sentences to life imprisonment, a record that places his personal opposition within the wider operation of the penal system.

Governorship and opposition to execution

Kansas had abolished Capital punishment in 1907, then restored it in 1935 amid a rise in violent professional crime. Executions resumed in 1944, and an executioner carried out nine more over the following decade. From 1954 onward, however, Kansas had no executions, apart from those at a separate military prison. The book identifies Docking, governor from 1957 through 1960, as responsible for this hiatus and describes him as unreservedly opposed to the death penalty. His stated objection was direct: “I just don’t like killing people”.

Commutations and their limits

Docking was defeated for re-election, in large measure because of his position on capital punishment. Before leaving office in January 1961, he commuted the sentences of Earl Wilson and another condemned prisoner to life imprisonment. In the account’s general description of the policy, that sentence meant they could apply for parole after seven years. The commutations gave practical effect to Docking’s opposition, though they did not erase the death sentences imposed by the courts from the state’s record.

Place in the prison narrative

In April 1960, 190 people in United States prisons were awaiting civil execution; five were held at Kansas State Penitentiary. Among them were Perry Smith and Dick, whose scheduled execution made the state’s recent pause in executions newly consequential. Docking’s record thus appears beside the condemned men’s confinement: the state had restored execution as a punishment, yet for six years its governor’s opposition had kept the gallows unused. His departure from office preceded the commutations’ ongoing consequences, including the possibility of parole for the two men whose sentences he changed.