The man accused of kidnapping and killing Kansas teenager Kelsey Smith and dumping her body near Longview Lake in Jackson County, Missouri, is now eligible for the death penalty.
Charges against Edwin Hall have been amended to capital murder and now include rape and aggravated criminal sodomy charges. Kansas law requires that one of a number of aggravating factors be present for a capital murder charge to be brought. In this case, it is the rape.
Even though this amendment makes Hall death penalty eligible, Johnson County, Kansas, District Attorney Phill Kline says he has not yet made a decision on whether to go after a sentence of lethal injection or one of life behind bars without parole.
