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Thread: Kentucky Capital Punishment News

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    Kentucky Capital Punishment News

    Two inmates whose case before the U.S. Supreme court stopped executions around the country for seven months likely won't be the first in Kentucky to face lethal injection now that the high court has upheld the method.

    The Kentucky Supreme Court has said it wants to hear three issues related to cop-killer Ralph Baze's case, while Thomas Clyde Bowling has a pending federal case contesting how Kentucky determines whether someone is mentally retarded and ineligible for execution.

    Kentucky Public Advocate Ernie Lewis, whose office is defending Baze and Bowling, says those legal issues will postpone the executions of Baze and Bowling for at least several months. Meanwhile the ruling could clear the way for the executions of two confessed child-killers who have waived all but their mandatory appeals.

    The U.S. Supreme Court, in a 7-2 vote on Wednesday, turned away a challenge by Baze and Bowling.

    "The people who carry out our protocol are professional, are trained and are ready to do it in such a manner that is professional, that is humane as possible under the circumstances and certainly does not create a substantial risk of ... unnecessary pain to those being executed," said J. Michael Brown, Kentucky Justice and Public Safety Cabinet Secretary.

    Baze was sentenced to death for the slayings of two eastern Kentucky lawmen in 1992, while Bowling is awaiting execution for the slaying of Edward and Tina Earley outside the couple's Lexington dry-cleaning business in 1990.

    The high court took the case as Baze faced a pending execution date last fall for the shooting deaths of Powell County Sheriff Steve Bennett and Deputy Arthur Briscoe. And, the Kentucky Supreme Court took up three issues related to Baze's case at about the same time, but a hearing on those issues was put on hold while the U.S. Supreme Court decided the constitutionality of the lethal injection method.

    "My attorneys will continue to litigate as long as there are issues unresolved," said Lewis, the state's top public defender. "We still have some options."

    Reacting to Wednesday's ruling, Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway said his office is in the process of reviewing the status of all 38 Death Row inmates in Kentucky. Conway said Baze, Bowling and Victor Taylor, awaiting execution for killing two Louisville high school students, are "beginning to get near the very end of the appellate process."

    He said he will pursue death warrants when appeals are exhausted, but did not set a time frame.

    "I will say that it will be the policy of my office to try to expedite this process as much as possible," Conway said.

    Gov. Steve Beshear said "under appropriate circumstances" he will sign death warrants.

    "I'm obviously going to review every detail of every case that comes before me in that regard because it's an extremely serious matter as we all know," Beshear said Wednesday.

    The Rev. Pat Delahanty, head of the Kentucky Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, said the Supreme Court ruling wasn't a surprise.

    "We never expected it to do more than maybe slow down executions in Kentucky or elsewhere," Delahanty said. "We're going to be facing some executions soon."

    Two of Kentucky's Death Row inmates, Marco Allen Chapman and Shawn Windsor, have waived their appeals after pleading guilty and receiving death sentences.

    Chapman, 36, killed 6-year-old Cody Sharon and 7-year-old Chelbi Sharon during a 2002 attack on their family in Gallatin County. The Kentucky Supreme Court upheld the guilty plea and death sentence, but have not yet ruled on a petition for a rehearing filed by his court-appointed attorneys, whom he has tried to dismiss. Chapman has sued the Department of Public Advocacy to stop them from trying to plead his case in the future.

    If Chapman's efforts are successful, he will have no pending appeals to stop his execution.

    Windsor, 45, pleaded guilty and asked to be executed for beating and stabbing his wife, Betty Jean Windsor and 8-year old son, Corey Windsor, in 2003. The Kentucky Supreme Court has not yet ruled on the validity of his plea and sentence.

    Other death row inmates are challenging their convictions through appeals or DNA testing of old evidence. Some, such as death row inmate Gregory Wilson, are challenging the way Kentucky conducts executions.

    The U.S. Supreme Court's ruling may have an impact on that litigation, said William Sharp, an attorney representing Wilson in the challenge. Sharp said he expects the state to cite the ruling in an attempt to dismiss the ongoing lawsuits.

    Fayette County Commonwealth Attorney Ray Larson, who prosecuted Bowling 17 years ago, said the ruling should shut down any future challenges. Kentucky has 38 death-row inmates, including 11 that have been there for more than two decades. The state has executed two men since reinstating the death penalty in 1976, and only one by injection: Eddie Lee Harper in 1999.

    "Enough is enough," Larson said.

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    August 19, 2008

    The Kenton County prosecutor has asked Northern Kentucky lawmakers to sponsor legislation that would expand the death penalty to cases involving children.

    Kenton County Commonwealth’s Attorney Rob Sanders wants the death penalty applied to cases when evidence shows that a defendant convicted of murdering a child has also been severely abusing or torturing the child.

    “Any time somebody kills a child and there is evidence that wasn’t the first time the child has been abused, that ought to be a death penalty case,” said Sanders, a Fort Mitchell Republican.

    Sanders said in Kentucky defendants convicted of murdering a child can be sentenced to life in prison, but then they can be eligible for parole in 20 years.

    Defendants are only put to death in Kentucky if they have committed multiple murders or killed someone while committing another crime, such as burglary, robbery, arson or kidnapping.

    Sanders said he was inspired to call for the change by the case of Aaron Allen, the 24-year-old Covington man accused of shaking a three-month-old baby to death. A police report shows that the child has suffered earlier injuries, broken bones and a fractured skull.

    “Children are helpless,” Sanders said. “They have to live a long time in serious pain. They can’t speak out; they have no one to go to and ask for help. They continue to suffer until they are abused to death.

    “If there is evidence that a murdered child was abused or tortured, then the person responsible should be put to death,” he said. “The last case just put me over the top.”

    Sanders has e-mailed his suggestion to the members of Northern Kentucky’s legislative caucus. The General Assembly will convene the 2009 legislative session in January.

    At least three lawmakers said they would consider supporting or sponsoring the bill once they learn more about it.

    “I’d like to talk to Rob more about this, but that it certainly a class of people that deserves no sympathy,” said Rep. Adam Koenig, R-Erlanger.

    Rep. Arnold Simpson, D-Covington, a member of the House Judiciary Committee, said the committee actually met Tuesday to talk about a major overhaul of the state’s penal system.

    “What Rob is talking about sounds like a perfect fit for the overall discussion of the penal code and death penalty,” Simpson said. “I would probably be inclined to support something like this, but of course I would have to learn more about the details.”

    Rep. Joe Fischer, R-Fort Thomas, also a member of the House Judiciary Committee, said Tuesday he was appointed to the interim committee that will be studying the penal code. Senate President Pro Tem Katie Stine, R-Southgate, and Sen. Dick Roeding, R-Lakeside Park, are also serving on the subcommittee.

    “We may try to look at Rob Sanders’ idea and include it in this major revision of the penal code,” Fischer said. “Any ideas that prosecutors or defense attorneys have should be submitted to us. This is the first time we have a major revision of the penal code in 35 years, so I expect we will have several major revisions.”

    http://news.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcs...0103/308190092

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    January 29, 2010

    Questions arise over lethal injection

    FRANKFORT - Carolyn Wehrle wants to provide spiritual counseling to Kentucky's only female death row inmate when her execution date arrives.

    But Wehrle said the state's proposed execution protocols as written will prevent Virginia Caudill from receiving the sacraments prescribed by her faith.

    "I was allowed to baptize her, but I can't minister to her in her last days?" asked Wehrle, a minister with Light of Christ Ministries in Richmond.

    Wehrle was one of 18 critics of Kentucky's lethal injection protocol to speak Friday at the state's first public hearing on how executions are conducted. Some speakers called the protocol vague and said it can violate an inmate's rights.

    The hearing came a month after the Kentucky Supreme Court ordered all executions halted because the state skipped public hearings on the administrative regulations that make up the protocol. The state released the protocol publicly days after the ruling.

    Kentucky Justice Cabinet spokeswoman Jennifer Brislin said the state will consider all comments and issue a report detailing what changes it did or did not make and why by Feb. 15. Ultimately, Gov. Steve Beshear will have to sign off on the protocol before executions may resume.

    Comments during the 2 1/2-hour hearing ranged from outright calls to abolish the death penalty to tweaking the mechanics. Multiple speakers supported a condemned inmate's right to spiritual counseling and religious rights before being put to death.

    Steve Lynn, associate counsel for the Kentucky Justice Cabinet and moderator of the hearing, said the U.S. Supreme Court has already approved of much of what is in the protocol in a 2007 case from Kentucky challenging lethal injection.

    "But we will sit down and look at past decisions that have been made," Lynn said.

    Critics of the protocol pointed out that it outlines a condemned inmate's last days in great detail, but glosses over crucial areas and cloaks in secrecy what happens in the minutes leading up to a lethal injection or execution.

    "There is no procedure that can be devised that foresees all the potential problems," said Ian Rochette, a third-year law student at the University of Louisville. "The state is unqualified for the taking of a life."

    Kate Miller, program coordinator for the American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky, said after a failed Ohio execution last year, in which an inmate was stuck with needles 18 times, Kentucky should allow witnesses to see the insertion of intravenous lines during a lethal injection. She also said witnesses should hear all sounds made throughout the execution.

    Currently, Kentucky closes curtains when the lines are being affixed and turns off microphones in the execution chamber during the execution.

    While the protocol details how an inmate is handled physically, the welfare of the inmate's soul took precedence during the hearing.

    Kentucky doesn't allow inmates to have contact visits with a spiritual adviser in the hours before death and the inmate isn't guaranteed a minister of the same religion. In both cases, said Marion McClure Taylor, executive director of the Kentucky Council of Churches, the inmate loses out at a time of great need.

    Caudill, who has about five years left on her appeals for the 1998 beating death and robbery of a 73-year-old woman in Lexington, should be allowed to be anointed with oil and properly receive other religious rites before she dies, Wehrle said.

    "During our time together, the most important point is prayer," Wehrle said. "How dare we deny her that?"

    http://nky.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcs....S0103/1300344/

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    Ky. on verge of execution flurry

    LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) - Kentucky has executed rarely since the reinstatement of the death penalty three decades ago, but a half-dozen inmates could exhaust their appeals by the end of the year.

    The state is on the verge of re-enacting the process that uses a three-drug cocktail to execute inmates, and could start setting execution dates for multiple inmates by early summer. Among those whose appeals have run out are Ralph Stevens Baze, convicted in 1992 of killing Powell County Deputy Arthur Briscoe and Sheriff Steve Bennett.

    “I’ll be glad when the chapter on Ralph Baze is closed,” said Rose Bennett, the widow of the sheriff and sister of the deputy. “I do believe his execution should be carried out.”

    That day could come soon. Baze is one of three inmates with pending warrants who could see an execution date set once the state’s lethal injection protocol is re-implemented. Those inmates could set the stage for Kentucky — which last executed an inmate in 2008 — to have as many executions in 2010 as it has had since the reinstatement of the death penalty in 1976.

    And, it could just be the first of as many as a half-dozen inmates facing execution dates in the next year.

    The state embarked on re-implementing its three-drug cocktail in January, weeks after the state Supreme Court halted all executions, saying state officials improperly adopted the lethal injection process.

    The order stopped Gov. Steve Beshear from acting on requests to set dates for Baze, Gregory L. Wilson, convicted of a rape and murder in northern Kentucky in 1987, and Robert Carl Foley, awaiting execution for six killings in eastern Kentucky.

    The protocol is on course to take effect no later than by May 7. Should that happen, Kentucky could start executing inmates in early June.

    “This is only temporary,” said public defender David Barron, who represents Baze, of the halt in lethal injections.

    Shelley Catherine Johnson, a spokeswoman for the Kentucky Attorney General’s office, said warrants for Wilson, Baze and Foley, requested in November, remain pending before Beshear. Johnson would not discuss whether any more warrants would be sought should the protocol be re-implemented by May.

    “The status of death row inmate cases is continually changing, it would be premature for us to talk about any additional warrants in advance of the Governor signing the protocol,” Johnson said.

    Wilson and Baze, on death row for a collective 38 years, have run through their appeals. Foley lost before the Kentucky Supreme Court last month. Benny Lee Hodge, condemned to death in two cases, is awaiting a final decision about whether the U.S. Supreme Court will hear his case.

    And two inmates, Shawn Windsor and James Hunt, both on death row in separate cases for killing family members, have sought to fire their attorneys and end appeals, potentially hastening their deaths.

    The prospect of looming executions also has attorneys for the condemned looking for ways to aide their clients.

    Dan Goyette, a Louisville public defender who represents Wilson, is exploring ways to keep his client alive.

    “We’re coming down the final stretch,” Goyette told The Associated Press.

    Barron is preparing a clemency petition for Baze in anticipation of an execution date being set. Barron has also petitioned a federal judge to gain access to prison personnel who could talk about his client.

    While Kentucky won’t catch Texas in frequency of executions, the pending reenactment of the protocols and the ending of appeals has death row inmates nervous.

    “We know they’re going to try again soon,” Baze told The Associated Press. “I just hope I hold up mentally now.”

    For Bennett, who has seen three scheduled execution dates for Baze halted, the execution will be a relief, even if she doesn’t plan to attend.

    “I don’t need to see that man die,” Bennett said. “I don’t have to see his eyes close.”

    http://www.state-journal.com/news/article/4803388

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    Ky. High Court Hears Challenge To DNA Testing Law

    FRANKFORT, Ky. -- The Kentucky Supreme Court is set to hear a challenge to the scope of the state’s law allowing DNA testing in older death penalty cases.

    The challenge, brought by condemned inmate Thomas Clyde Bowling, seeks to have the court rule that the law allows for multiple tests of evidence instead of just a single examination.

    A judge sentenced the 57-year-old Bowling to death on Jan. 4, 1991, in Lexington for the shooting deaths of Eddie and Tina Early. The husband and wife were shot on the morning of April 9, 1990, while sitting in their car before opening their family-owned dry cleaning business. Their 2-year-old son was injured, but survived the attack.

    DNA testing in Bowling’s case found genetic material from multiple people on some evidence, but a judge said the law didn’t allow further testing to either eliminate Bowling or implicate someone else.

    http://www.wlky.com/news/23146579/detail.html

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    Inmates Challenge New Execution Method In Ky.

    Kentucky's new method for executing prisoners by lethal injection is set to take effect, but 3 condemned inmates have asked a judge to stop the state from using it.

    Death row inmates Ralph Stevens Baze, Thomas Clyde Bowling and Brian Keith Moore filed a motion Friday in Franklin Circuit Court through public defender David Barron. The motion asks a judge to declare the state violated a Kentucky Supreme Court order in the way it adopted the new method.

    A hearing is set for May 19.

    The challenge says the state fails to spell out how the chemicals would be injected, authorizes unqualified people to insert intravenous lines and doesn't allow death row inmates to address a public hearing about the protocol.

    (Source: The Associated Press)

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    Ky. judge weighs challenge to lethal injection

    A state judge said Wednesday he would soon decide whether 3 death row inmates have properly challenged the way the state's new lethal injection protocol was adopted and possibly on the merits of whether the method itself needs to be re-examined.

    "These questions need to be answered and they need to be answered promptly," said Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd.

    The state Supreme Court in November barred Kentucky from conducting executions, finding that officials improperly adopted the 3-drug injection method. The state Justice Cabinet, which oversees the protocol, adopted some changes to it and a pair of legislative committees approved the method.

    The new procedure went into effect May 7, but no death warrants have been issued since. Attorneys for the state says there is nothing that prevents executions from being set.

    Shepherd noted that warrants could come "at any time."

    The suing inmates, Ralph Stevens Baze, Thomas Clyde Bowling and Brian Keith Moore, revived a closed lawsuit and asked Shepherd to find that Kentucky violated the state Supreme Court order in the way it adopted the new method.

    Attorneys for the state say a new lawsuit may need to be filed to challenge the method, an argument Shepherd said he'll consider before weighing in on how it was adopted.

    Warrant requests on Baze and 2 other inmates have been pending since November. Public defender David Barron, who represents the inmates, said Gov. Steve Beshear's office has set a deadline to provide mitigating information before a decision is made on a warrant. That could come by next week, he said.

    Steve Lynn and Brenn Combs, attorneys for the Kentucky Department of Corrections, said though no warrants have been signed, there are no orders preventing an execution from going forward.

    An after hours call to Kerri Richardson, a spokeswoman for Beshear, was not immediately returned Wednesday.

    The challenge Shepherd heard raises similar concerns to the old one. It claims the state failed to spell out how the chemicals would be injected, authorizing people not qualified to insert intravenous lines to handle the execution and not allowing death row inmates to address a public hearing about the 3-drug protocol.

    Barron said Kentucky's new protocol has multiple violations of high court order, including a lack of specificity about how the drugs are mixed and that condemned inmates were not allowed to speak at the public hearing on the method.

    "The court is effectively saying all executions are prohibited until the protocols are properly in place," Barron said.

    Combs said the regulations governing a lethal injection are specific enough to provide instruction on how to carry out an execution without being so specific as to give away security information or limit the flexibility of the execution team.

    Combs said inmates weren't brought to Frankfort for the public hearing in January for logistical reasons and because the state wasn't obligated.

    "There is no law in Kentucky that lets us take any prisoner in any jail to every public hearing," Combs said. "It is an impossibility for us to bring all of the inmates."

    When the high court halted executions, warrant requests were pending for Baze, 54, who was sentenced to death in 1992 for killing a Powell County sheriff and deputy, Robert Carl Foley, 53, awaiting execution for the slayings of 6 people in 2 incidents, and Gregory Lee Wilson, 53, condemned for kidnapping, raping and killing a woman in northern Kentucky in 1988.

    The Attorney General's office does not currently have requests for death warrants for Bowling, condemned to death for a double murder in Lexington in 1990, and Moore, sentenced to death for a 1979 murder in Louisville.

    Kentucky has executed three people since 1976. Harold McQueen was executed in the electric chair in 1997 for killing a convenience store clerk in 1981. Eddie Lee Harper was executed by lethal injection in 1999. Marco Allen Chapman was executed by lethal injection in November.

    (Source: The Lexington Herald-Leader)

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    Ky.'s lethal injection drugs challenged

    On the heels of 2 states switching to a single-drug execution method, a defense attorney representing multiple Kentucky death row inmates wants a judge to consider if the state's 3-drug protocol is unconstitutionally cruel.

    Public defender David Barron said Ohio's successful use of one dose of sodium thiopental to execute inmates is proof that there are safer, quicker and less painful methods of carrying out a death sentence. If Barron is successful, Kentucky could be forced to switch to a one-drug execution method. Barron filed suit in Franklin Circuit Court on Friday, asking Judge Phillip Shepherd to reopen an ongoing challenge to Kentucky's method and consider forcing the state to put a 1-drug execution protocol in place.

    Ohio and Washington are the only 2 states to use 1 drug to execute condemned inmates.

    (Source: The Associated Press)

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    Death Penalty Exemption?

    Kentucky lawmakers are being urged by the mental health community to eliminate the death penalty for those with a severe mental illness. But, the idea is getting a cool reception from lawmakers and prosecutors.

    Mental health advocates claim defendants with a severe mental illness should be treated like juveniles and the mentally retarded in capital cases. The U.S. Supreme Court has eliminated the death penalty for those two groups.

    "It is time to remove this very, very small group of severely impaired individuals from the ultimate punishment,” Sheila Schuster, mental health advocate, told lawmakers on the Judiciary Committee Wednesday.

    Experts say 2.6% of the population has a severe, persistent mental illness, such as being psychotic or dillusional. "They really do not understand their actions and what they're doing, their volitions,” said psychologist Russ Williams.

    "There's a gap in our laws right now for a person who is not insane but they are more than impaired,” said Ernie Lewis with the Kentucky Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

    But, prosecutors are opposed to the idea. "It is so broad this time that nearly every killer could qualify,” Chris Cohron , Warren County Commonwealths Attorney told lawmakers.

    Lawmakers also raised concerns. “There is ample opportunity for that in the system,” Rep. Harry Moberly, (D) Richmond, said of the ability of judges and juries to consider a defendant’s mental state. "Juries tend to bring this down to what's fair."

    No bill has been pre-filed for the 2011 legislative session. Similar proposals during the 2009 and 2010 sessions failed to obtain a committee hearing.

    http://www.wtvq.com/news/4635-death-penalty-exemption

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    September 8, 2010

    Judge to hear argument over Ky. execution protocol

    FRANKFORT, Ky. -- A Kentucky judge is set to hear arguments over whether to stop executions in the state, including one scheduled for next week.

    The hearing, set for 10 a.m. before Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd, will focus on whether an injunction handed down in November by the Kentucky Supreme Court halting all executions in the state is still in effect.

    The high court ruled that Kentucky failed to properly adopt a three-drug lethal injection protocol. The Kentucky Department of Corrections reimplemented the protocol in May. Gov. Steve Beshear set a Sept. 16 execution date for Gregory L. Wilson, condemned to death for a 1987 kidnapping, rape and murder.

    An attorney for multiple death row inmates says because no court has dissolved the injunction, it remains in effect and executions are prohibited.

    Attorneys for the state say the readoption of the protocol in May ended the injunction because the state complied with the court's order.

    http://www.kentucky.com/2010/09/08/1...t-over-ky.html

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