The U.S. Supreme Court says it will answer whether the Kansas death penalty law is constitutional.

Attorney General Phill Kline says the case is about justice, but others are hopeful it's a final chapter for a punishment they say goes too far.

Bill Lucero is among the latter group. For 11 years, he's tied ribbons around what he calls his healing tree, hoping for an end to the state's 1994 capital punishment law.

Lucero says it's a waste of taxpayer's money that only hurts victims' families.

His cause is in the hands of the U.S. Supreme Court. The court said Tuesday it will hear the state's appeal of the Michael Marsh case. Marsh was sentenced to death for the 1996 murders of a 21-year old woman and her 19-month-old daughter. In December, the Kansas Supreme Court threw out his sentence and the state's death penalty law. It said a provision on how juries weigh evidence for and against the death penalty was unconstitutional.

Kline says, in Kansas, if mitigating and aggravating factors are equal, the jury is instructed to hand down a death sentence. Other states' laws are the opposite. Kline says it will be helpful to all states to have a ruling from the Supreme Court on the matter.

In Kansas, the Court's decision could impact Marsh and six other former death row inmates.

Lucero says it's not that he has a lot of compassion for the defendants. His own father was murdered in 1972. It's just that he believes there's a better way. He says Kansas has a sentence of life without parole, which he believes protects us adequately.

The Supreme Court won't hear arguments until October or November, and a ruling wouldn't come until January or February. Kline says he will argue the case himself.