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Thread: Kentucky Capital Punishment News

  1. #81
    Moderator Ryan's Avatar
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    Kentucky judge declares state's death penalty protocol unconstitutional

    A Kentucky judge has struck down the state's death penalty protocol as unconstitutional because it does not explicitly prohibit the execution of prisoners with intellectual disabilities.

    Ruling on a motion brought by a dozen inmates on death row, Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd ruled Tuesday that the regulation is invalid because it doesn't automatically suspend an execution when the state corrections department’s internal review shows a condemned person has an intellectual disability.

    Granting a motion filed by the Department of Public Advocacy, Shepherd said the state's rules are flawed because they would allow a prisoner with intellectual disabilities to be executed if he or she declines further appeals.

    The U.S. Supreme Court “categorically prohibits the execution of intellectually disabled persons,” Shepherd noted.

    Assistant Public Advocate David Barron said all executions in Kentucky already had been stayed because of questions about the state's means of lethal injection, as well as other issues. Tuesday's ruling continues that stay, he said.

    Barron called the opinion "a sound ruling that recognizes what we have been arguing for years."

    He said the corrections department has “doggedly persisted” in refusing to recognize the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling 17 years ago by taking “reasonable steps to ensure that an intellectually disabled person is not executed.”

    The Kentucky attorney general’s office, which defended the regulations, is reviewing the ruling, spokesman Kenneth Mansfield said.

    Three inmates, Thomas Bowling, Brian Keith Moore and Ralph Baze, filed challenges to the execution regulations in 2006. Bowling died of cancer in 2015.

    The Kentucky Supreme Court has said that “imposing this harshest of punishments upon an intellectually disabled person violates his or her inherent dignity as a human being.”

    Kentucky law once required an inmate to have an IQ lower than 70 to qualify as intellectually disabled and avoid execution. But last year the state’s high court said the use of a “bright-line” IQ test, without additional evidence, “cannot be used to conclusively determine that a person is not intellectually disabled and thus subject to the death penalty."

    Baze, 64, was sentenced to death on February 4, 1994, in Rowan County for the murder of two police officers, according to the Corrections Department website.

    On January 30, 1992, a Powell County deputy, Arthur Briscoe, went to Baze's home regarding warrants from Ohio. Briscoe returned with Sheriff Steve Bennett. Baze, using an assault rifle, killed the two officers.

    Baze previously challenged the state’s execution protocol on the grounds that its lethal injection “cocktail” violated the ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

    Moore, 61, was sentenced to death on November 29, 1984, in Jefferson County for the kidnapping, robbery and murder of 79-year-old Virgil Harris on August 10, 1979, in Louisville.

    Harris was returning to his car from a grocery store parking lot when he was abducted, driven to a wooded area of Jefferson County and killed.

    https://eu.courier-journal.com/story...ge/1634299001/
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  2. #82
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    Proposed Bill Would Ban Death Penalty for Severely Mentally Ill Persons

    Kentucky lawmakers are considering a bill that would prevent seriously mentally ill defendants from receiving the death penalty.

    A handful of other states, including Ohio, Virginia and Indiana, recently have pushed similar legislation.

    Patrick Delahanty, director of advocacy for the Kentucky Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, says the bill does not exclude everyone with some form of mental illness from capital punishment -- only those with severe disorders such as schizophrenia.

    "And so, it doesn't seem fair in a system of justice that seeks to punish someone and also show people the difference between good and bad," he states.

    Delahanty says the bill is similar to a Kentucky law passed in the early 1990s that bars people deemed to be mentally disabled from being executed.

    House Bill 237 is co-sponsored by Rep. Chad McCoy, a Republican from Bardstown, and nearly 30 other legislators.

    Critics say the mentally ill are disproportionately given the death penalty. One analysis found more than 40% of people executed between 2000 and 2015 in the U.S. had been diagnosed with some form of mental illness.

    Delahanty says mentally ill defendants still would be eligible for life sentences.

    "They do need to be in a place where they are not able to harm people," he states. "And so, they would be eligible for prison terms, and lengthy prisons terms, including up to life without parole."

    The National Alliance on Mental Illness and other groups have publicly stated their opposition to executing people with serious mental health issues.

    (source: publicnewsservice.org)
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  3. #83
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    House of Representatives quietly passes bill to limit the death penalty in Kentucky

    By Daniel Desrochers
    The Lexington Herald-Leader

    Late Monday night the Kentucky House of Representatives quietly passed a bill that would ban the death penalty for people with certain severe mental illnesses.

    There was no debate, just a floor amendment and a vote where more than three quarters of the representatives approved a bill that has been in the works for more than a decade.

    “I’m thrilled,” said Sheila Schuster, the leader of the Kentucky Mental Health Coalition. “From a mental health standpoint, this has been on our wish list for 15 years.”

    The bill, sponsored by Rep. Chad McCoy, R-Bardstown, would ban the death penalty for people who have a documented history of schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder, or delusional disorder. It would not apply if the disorder were attributable solely to the effects of drugs or alcohol.

    Advocates for the bill argue that it’s about protecting people who experience the most severe mental illness — Schuster pointed out that the disorders covered are considered lifelong mental illnesses — particularly in cases when they might not be able to fully understand the trial and its circumstances.

    Father Pat Delahanty, an advocate for eliminating the death penalty, pointed to the case of Sherman Noble, who was charged with murdering four people in 1987 and then sat in prison for more than 15 years before he faced trial while the judicial system determined his mental competency. Noble, who Delahanty said was a diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic, eventually represented himself at trial and was sentenced to death in 2005. He died in prison in 2007, before he could be executed by the state.

    “In a sense, it’s a mental health bill that deals with how mentally ill people get caught up in the justice system,” Delahanty said. “There should be far more thought given to the system in general and how mentally ill people are dealt with in the system.”

    No one has been sentenced to death in Kentucky since Larry White was convicted for murder and rape in 2014. An execution hasn’t occurred in Kentucky since 2008 and there are currently 26 inmates on death row.

    Rob Sanders, the co-legislative liaison for the Kentucky Prosecutors Association, said the bill was too broad and would end up including people who were not mentally ill. He said the death penalty is already used sparingly in Kentucky and he feared that a diagnosis of depression in someone’s 20s could prevent them from being held accountable for a heinous crime in their 50s.

    “It effectively eliminates the death penalty in Kentucky,” said Sanders, who is the Kenton County Commonwealth’s Attorney. “It is so vague and so broad.”

    About 5.2 percent of the U.S. population suffers from serious mental illness, according to the National Institute of Mental Health.

    McCoy, who said he is opposed to the death penalty and would like to see it abolished, said the bill is a more limited step.

    “I think it’s very limited in who it applies to,” McCoy said. “But in the cases where it does apply, I think it’s critical.”

    The bill is not retroactive, which means that it would only apply to future cases where the death penalty might be considered. Sanders, though, warned that defense attorneys would be able to ask judges to look at the current death row cases and ask them to apply the new statute, should the bill become law.

    “They also say they’ve never put someone on death row that’s seriously mentally ill, so why would it matter?” Delahanty said.

    The bill had bipartisan support in the Republican-led House, with only 16 members, all Republicans, voting against it. Both Schuster and Delahanty attributed the increase in support for the bill to a growing awareness of mental health issues among the General Assembly. Schuster added that people who suffer from mental illnesses are more likely to be the victim of crimes than the perpetrator.

    McCoy said he has also been appealing to the financially conservative side of his caucus, instead of relying on moral and ethical arguments about the death penalty.

    It’s crazy how much money we’re wasting,” McCoy said. “We would save money to get it off the table.”

    The corrections impact statement on the bill said the legislation would have a minimal to moderate financial impact of less than $1 million, based on the fact that it costs more to house someone in a mental health unit.

    Though the bill easily cleared the House, it still has to get through the Senate. Last year, Sen. Julie Raque Adams introduced a similar version of the bill that easily made it out of committee, but never got a vote on the floor of the Senate in a session that was upended by the COVID-19 pandemic.

    Delahanty said he believes there is still time to pass the bill before lawmakers adjourn at the end of March.

    “People are becoming more and more aware that the death penalty is flawed and the system is broken,” Delahanty said.

    https://www.kentucky.com/news/politi...249628293.html

  4. #84
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    Place your bets on why Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd will now declare the death penalty in Kentucky unconstitutional.

  5. #85
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    Bill to prohibit death penalty for mentally ill approved by Senate committee

    The House bill that would prohibit people from receiving the death penalty if they were suffering from certain mental illnesses at the time of the offense was approved by a Senate committee Thursday — with the implication the bill will face questioning when the full Senate hears it.

    House Bill 148, which passed the House earlier this week, bars anyone found to have been suffering from a “serious mental illness” from receiving the death penalty if a judge determines the person was being affected by the illness at the time he or she committed the offense.

    The bill lists five mental illnesses where the death penalty would be prohibited — schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder and delusional disorder. A person who has a “documented” history of one of those disorders would receive a hearing at least 90 days before trial when the judge would decide if the person has a “serious mental illness.”

    State law already prohibits executions of people with a “serious intellectual disability.” The state currently has a moratorium against imposing the death penalty and hasn’t executed anyone since 2008.

    The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Chad McCoy, a Bardstown Republican and a member of the GOP House leadership, said, “This is not going to do away with the death penalty. It’s a very narrow bill.”

    A hearing on the issue must be held at least days before the beginning of the trial date. That was a change from the original version, which said such as hearing could be held as late as 10 days before trial.

    Chris Cohron, commonwealth’s attorney in Warren County and legislative director for the state Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Association, opposed the bill. He said there are protections for defendants with serious mental illnesses in case law.

    Cohron said the use of the word “documented” was a concern.

    “This is a point that will cause a great deal of litigation — ‘documented’ by who?” Cohron said. The disorders listed in the bill are encountered frequently in the criminal justice system, he said.

    The bill, if approved, is not retroactive and would apply to death penalty cases after the law takes effect. Cohron said he believed people currently on death row would use the bill to appeal their cases.

    “If you look at the 30-some people sitting on death row, many of these issues would have come up,” Cohron said. “The odds of (cases) not being challenged and litigated retroactively are zero.”

    McCoy said the bill is not retroactive, and people who were found to be “seriously mentally” ill would face prison sentences.

    “They are still going to serve life without parole,” McCoy said.

    Senate President Robert Stivers, a Manchester Republican, said there is a difference between a “documented” mental illness and a “diagnosed” one, and a person could have a documented mental illness and still “commit an offense with all your cognitive skills in place.”

    “But the death penalty would come off the table,” Stivers said, adding later, “You may never have been diagnosed (with) depression, but if you can show a documented history ... that raises the question.”

    McCoy said a judge would have to determine the defendant was suffering from the illness at the time of the offense.

    The bill was passed out of the committee, but only after Sen. Danny Carroll, a Benton Republican, changed his vote from “no” to “yes,” because he had not heard the entire debate. Carroll said he had voted “no” on a similar bill in the past.

    The bill next goes to the full Senate for consideration.

    Earlier in the day, the Senate Veterans, Military Affairs and Public Protection Committee approved a bill that creates a new definition of “riot,” and allows for enhanced penalties if a defendant is determined upon conviction to have committed an offense connected to the riot.

    “I want to make it clear again: This is not about protests,” Carroll, the bill’s sponsor, told committee members. “This is not about lawful protests ... What this deals with are those who cross the line and commit criminal acts.

    “We saw this across the summer,” Carroll said. “We feared a riot on these grounds several weeks ago.”

    The enhanced penalties include a fine and preventing the defendant from being released on probation or parole until they’ve completed a certain amount of incarceration time for misdemeanor offenses, depending on the offense.

    The bill “puts penalties (in place) that are harsh enough to deter riot-based crime,” Carroll said.

    Some misdemeanor offenses would become felonies if committed during a riot, such as obstructing emergency responders and resisting arrest.

    The bill also creates a presumption that a person had a reasonable fear of death or serious physical injury if he or she uses “defensive force” under certain circumstances during a riot, such as using defensive force to escape a riot while being intentionally blocked.

    Carroll said he had made several changes based on comments he’d received from legislators, such as removing mandatory enhanced sentences for felonies associated with a riot. A provision about unlawful camping on property during a riot, which would be a misdemeanor under the bill, was changed to not include people who are homeless.

    A section that pertained to a person losing some government benefits if convicted of a riot-related offense was removed.

    The bill was approved, but some lawmakers said they had issues with portions of it. Sen. Wil Shroader, a Wilder Republican, said barring probation or parole for people convicted of riot-related offenses conflicted with other crimes where probation is allowed.

    “We have all kinds of crimes that don’t have that language,” Shroader said, and called the provision in Carroll’s bill “very inconsistent.” The latest version of the bill was given to committee members during the hearing, which prompted one “no” vote. The wrong version was initially provided to lawmakers.

    “I’m not against the bill,” said Sen. Dennis Parrett, an Elizabethtown Democrat. “But I am against getting a 34-page document put in our hands that is still hot” during the discussion.

    Carroll’s bill next goes to the full Senate.

    https://www.messenger-inquirer.com/n...2f3c4861b.html
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  6. #86
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    Ky. House advances bill banning death penalty for people with mental illness

    Kentuckians who have some serious mental illnesses won’t be subject to the death penalty under a bill that passed out of the state House of Representatives on Wednesday. The measure now heads to the state Senate, which hasn’t supported similar proposals in recent years.

    Under House Bill 269, people who have been diagnosed by a mental health professional with at least one of four serious illnesses could not be sentenced to execution.

    Rep. Chad McCoy, a Republican from Bardstown and sponsor of the bill, said he would be in favor of totally eliminating the death penalty in Kentucky, but this is a 1st step.

    “Just want to be clear, there is absolutely no way that folks get away with committing the crime. They still go to jail for life without the possibility of parole. All we’re doing is removing the death penalty portion,” McCoy said.

    The death penalty ban would apply to people diagnosed with schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, bipolar disorder or delusional disorder.

    The measure would remove execution as a possible punishment for people who have active symptoms of those mental illnesses at the time of an offense, as long as they were previously diagnosed by a provider.

    A similar proposal passed out of the House last year but was never taken up in the Senate

    Rep. Tina Bojanowski, a Democrat from Louisville, said she wished the bill went further, but voted in favor of it.

    “I fully support this bill, and the only feedback I’ve gotten from constituents is why don’t we ban the death penalty altogether?” Bojanowski said.

    The bill passed out of the House with a vote of 76-19 and now heads to the Senate for consideration.

    Though Kentucky has handed down 82 death sentences since 1975, only three people have been executed during that period, according to a report sponsored by the Kentucky Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. The last execution was in 2008.

    According to the report, of those 82 death sentences imposed, 41 have been reversed.

    (source: WPFL news)
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  7. #87
    Senior Member CnCP Addict maybeacomedian's Avatar
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    Kentucky lawmakers vote to put limits on death penalty

    By Bruce Schreiner
    The Associated Press

    FRANKFORT, Ky. — Kentucky would make the death penalty off-limits for some defendants diagnosed with severe mental illnesses under a bill that won final legislative approval on Friday.

    The Republican-led Senate voted 25-9 to send the measure to Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear, capping a long effort led by death penalty opponents to put limits on the use of capital punishment.

    Under the bill, the death penalty ban would apply to defendants with a documented history — including a diagnosis from a mental health professional — of certain mental disorders and who had active symptoms at the time of the offense. The disorders include schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, bipolar disorder and delusional disorder.

    “It in no way absolves defendants of legal responsibilities for their crimes," Republican Sen. Julie Raque Adams said in presenting the measure. "They can still be tried, convicted and sentenced to lengthy prison terms, including life without parole.”

    The bill would not be applied retroactively to the 26 prisoners now on Kentucky’s Death Row.

    In opposing the measure, Republican Senate Majority Floor Leader Damon Thayer portrayed it as a “slippery slope for getting rid of the death penalty.”

    "And maybe that’s the way public opinion is going and that’s too bad,” he said.

    Last year, similar legislation passed the House but stalled in the Senate. Since then, the bill’s leading supporters consulted key senators in crafting the revised version now headed to the governor.

    https://omaha.com/lifestyles/health-...d221e92f2.html
    https://archive.ph/WnMC5

  8. #88
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    What is the chance of Kentucky carrying out death sentences in the next 5 years?
    "How do you get drunk on death row?" - Werner Herzog

    "When we get fruit, we get the juice and water. I ferment for a week! It tastes like chalk, it's nasty" - Blaine Keith Milam #999558 Texas Death Row

  9. #89
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    Zero.
    Don't ask questions, just consume product and then get excited for next products.

    "They will hurt you. They will hurt your grandma, these people. The root cause of this is there's no discipline in the homes, they don't go to school, you know, they live off the government, no personal accountability, and they just beat people up for no reason, and it's disgusting." - Former Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters

  10. #90
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    NKY Senator wants to restart Kentucky’s use of the death penalty

    By Mark Payne
    LinkNKY

    Northern Kentucky Senator John Schickel (R-Union) wants to bring back capital punishment in Kentucky, even though it’s currently considered unconstitutional in the state.

    Schickel said he plans to speak with the attorney general and 2023 AG candidates in order to do so.

    “It’s been a long time since it’s been used,” Schickel said during the Budget Review Subcommittee on Justice and Judiciary on Wednesday. “It’s my hope that we can start using it again, and we’ll have an attorney general elected that will start pursuing it.”

    The committee was hearing testimony from the Department of Corrections and Justice & Public Safety Cabinet about funding for the prison systems in Kentucky.

    Schickel asked questions about funding for the Kentucky State Penitentiary in Eddyville, the only facility in Kentucky that executes prisoners. He wanted to ensure that the facilities in Eddyville were still equipped to provide lethal injection, the only form of capital punishment used by the Commonwealth.

    “I wanted their assurance that it was, it’s their responsibility,” Schickel said.

    The Department of Corrections representatives said they would get back to Schickel because they needed to check.

    Schickel said capital punishment has been on his mind for a while, even though he knows it’s an unpopular subject. Opponents of pro-life Republicans often say that the death penalty doesn’t align with those values.

    But Schickel disagrees.

    “I disagree with that vehemently,” he said. “An innocent baby’s life needs to be protected. A convicted criminal is different than an innocent baby.”

    While the Senator from Union hopes to revive the death penalty, it is not often used in Kentucky. There have only been three executions since 1976, when the legislature repealed the mandatory death statute.

    Currently, 27 inmates sit on death row. The Governor has the sole right to grant clemency in Kentucky.

    In 2010, Franklin County Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd issued a moratorium on the death penalty after questioning the constitutionality of the amount of pain caused during lethal injection. He also expressed concerns about the mental stability of death row inmates.

    In 2019, Shepherd struck down Kentucky’s death penalty protocol due to its unconstitutionality, citing state rules that allow a person with intellectual disabilities to be executed.

    “There’s currently an injunction from a circuit court that prevents it from being used,” said Gov. Andy Beshear. “Certainly, both the Attorney General’s Office and the Justice cabinet are part of that case trying to work through the concerns that the judge has, but right now, based on a federal order, executions cannot occur in Kentucky.”

    Federal law “categorically prohibits the execution of intellectually disabled persons.”

    But Kentucky didn’t always follow that rule until Shepherd’s initial ruling in 2010.

    A 2021 poll by the Justice Research Group (JRG) found bipartisan support against the death penalty for those with mental illness.

    “I know that it’s controversial, and I know the polls show there maybe isn’t support for the death penalty as in years past,” Schickel said. “I personally support it as a legislator. I think until the law is changed by the legislature, we need to proceed.”

    In the 2022 legislative session, the legislature passed House Bill 269, which bans capital punishment for those diagnosed with a qualifiable mental disorder such as schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. Schickel voted against the bill. Northern Kentucky Reps. Savannah Maddox (R-Dry Ridge) and Sal Santoro (R-Union) also voted against the bill.

    https://linknky.com/kentucky/frankfo...death-penalty/
    "There is a point in the history of a society when it becomes so pathologically soft and tender that among other things it sides even with those who harm it, criminals, and does this quite seriously and honestly. Punishing somehow seems unfair to it, and it is certain that imagining ‘punishment’ and ‘being supposed to punish’ hurts it, arouses fear in it." Friedrich Nietzsche

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