Kentucky AG joins 16-state letter asking feds to streamline death penalty
In his latest attempt to reinstate capital punishment in the commonwealth, Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman is urging the federal government to help overcome delays in imposing the death penalty.
Coleman joined a 16-state coalition to support streamlining the federal government’s review of capital murder convictions, his office announced Monday.
It’s Coleman’s most recent tactic since taking office in January 2024 to resume executions in Kentucky, which has not carried out the death penalty since 2008.
“Too many convicted killers are seeking to avoid justice through delays in the imposition of the death penalty. We will continue fighting to protect the verdicts lawfully delivered by Kentucky juries and the families who deserve justice,” Coleman said in the Monday news release.
Coleman joined a letter that originated in Alabama asking the federal government to intervene and hasten the timeline it takes to execute a death row prisoner.
The letter states that existing Department of Justice regulations unlawfully add extra certification requirements, and that those rules should be rescinded. In doing so, Coleman and other attorneys general say barriers to the process would be removed.
Attorneys general from Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota and Texas also signed the letter.
Nationally, the average time spent on death row is more than two decades, Coleman said. And in Kentucky, the average wait is longer, around 26 years, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
Earlier this year, Coleman’s office asked a Franklin County Circuit Court judge to dismiss a nearly 20-year-old lawsuit that has paused Kentucky executions for years.
Coleman argues that a civil case filed by Ralph Baze, who was sentenced to death more than 30 years ago for killing two police officers, has dragged on for too long. Dismissing Baze’s civil suit, which questions the constitutionality of the death penalty, would be a “significant victory for the rule of law,” Coleman says.
His staff has frequently been in Frankfort courtrooms arguing that Baze’s lawsuit should be a conduit for resuming lethal injections and providing justice to victims’ families.
The long fight over the legality of Baze’s execution began in 2007, when the U.S. Supreme Court halted capital punishment nationwide as it considered Baze’s appeal.
The Supreme Court eventually allowed executions to resume, including Kentucky.
But not for Baze. Baze’s civil lawsuit remained ongoing, and in 2010, Franklin Circuit Court Judge Phillip Shepherd halted executions in the commonwealth for a second time.
One of Shepherd’s main questions was whether Kentucky had proper guardrails in place to avoid executing someone who has an intellectual disability or has been deemed insane by the courts.
But Coleman’s office contends those issues have been settled or are no longer relevant.
And on March 31 in Frankfort, Jack Heyburn, an attorney in Coleman’s office, argued that position in front of Shepherd.
Coleman said many of the “weighty, due process” issues that originated 20 years ago with Baze’s appeal have been resolved. Modern concerns are “straw dogs,” he said.
“Baze’s name is on the case file, but the temporary injunction issued 16 years ago does not apply to him,” Coleman said.
Shepherd has not ruled yet on whether he will dismiss the lawsuit. A hearing is set June 1 to determine how Senate Bill 251, passed last session, will impact the litigation.
Senate Bill 251 allows the Kentucky Department of Corrections to set execution procedures through internal policies instead of following formal administrative regulations.
Kentucky currently houses 24 death row inmates, according to the Department of Corrections.
