The Kentucky Supreme Court issued a unanimous ruling Thursday denying a request by the state and Department of Corrections to resume executions, which have been on hold since a 2010 court order.
In 2010, a Franklin Circuit Court judge halted all executions in Kentucky amid concerns about the mental status of condemned inmates and the state’s drug protocol used in lethal injections.
No one has been executed in Kentucky since 2008 when Marco Allen Chapman was given a lethal injection for killing two Gallatin County children and injuring their mother and sister.
In March, the Kentucky Department of Corrections revised its lethal injection regulations and moved to lift the Franklin Circuit Court’s injunction, arguing the revisions resolved the issues. But in May, Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd declined to rule, saying there were still constitutional questions about the new regulations.
An appeal by the state to the Supreme Court was unsuccessful because the justices can only rule on final orders, and the case before Shepherd is still pending.
The high court noted that Judge Shepherd “acknowledged that the basis of the 2010 temporary injunction may not remain warranted, or proper,” but he “chose to reserve a ruling on the Commonwealth’s motion to dissolve the injunction.”
And the state did not take any action to push Shepherd toward a definitive ruling, such as requesting another hearing to resolve whether the injunction should be lifted or request that the Supreme Court compel the judge to rule, according to the order.
The case has been sent back to Judge Shepherd for a ruling.
Attorney General Russell Coleman has called for the ban on the death penalty to be lifted in Kentucky and argued that the new regulations have brought the state into compliance with the 2010 ruling.
In a statement on Thursday, Coleman said the Supreme Court “sent us back to Franklin Circuit Court to continue our efforts to end the 15-year ban on the lawful imposition of the death penalty. On behalf of the victims’ families who have suffered through a decades-long wait for justice, that’s exactly what we intend to do.”
There are about two dozen inmates on the state’s death row.
Source: WDRB
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