Court decision could allow about a dozen executions to proceed
FRANKFORT, Ky. (WSMV) – Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman said Monday that his office is asking the Franklin Circuit Court to dismiss a case that has kept the state’s death penalty on hold for nearly two decades.
During a hearing, his office argued in favor of dismissing a 2006 case at the center of the pause, which has lasted 18 years. If the court grants the request, about a dozen executions could move forward, according to Coleman’s office.
“I am standing here today as the Attorney General of this Commonwealth to tell victims and surviving families that they are not forgotten,” Coleman said. “Justice has been tragically delayed, but we’re fighting hard to make sure it is not denied.”
Although several individuals in Kentucky remain on death row, the state has not carried out an execution since 2008. The pause stems from a 2006 case in which two inmates challenged the state’s four-drug lethal injection protocol, arguing it violates the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
The Supreme Court of the United States ruled that while the method itself does not violate the Eighth Amendment, it could become unconstitutional if used without sufficient justification over safer alternatives.
“Simply because an execution method may result in pain, either by accident or as an inescapable consequence of death, does not establish the sort of ‘objectively intolerable risk of harm’ that qualifies as cruel and unusual,” then-Chief Justice Roberts wrote in the majority opinion.
“…If a State refuses to adopt such an alternative in the face of these documented advantages, without a legitimate penological justification for adhering to its current method of execution, then a State’s refusal to change its method can be viewed as ‘cruel and unusual’ under the Eighth Amendment.”
The Attorney General’s office also pointed to the 1992 murders of Powell County Sheriff Steve Bennett and Deputy Sheriff Arthur Briscoe, noting that the person convicted in that case was sentenced to death 30 years ago.
No timeline has been announced for when the court will rule on the motion to dismiss.
Leave a Comment