STATEMENT OF FACTS
1. Ernest Fletcher, M.D. is a duly licensed physician in Kentucky on
active status under the authority of the Kentucky Board of Medical
Licensure.
2. Dr. Fletcher is bound by the tenets of the Hippocratic Oath and the
Code of Ethics adopted by the American Medical Association and by the
Kentucky Board of Medical Licensure.
3. Dr. Fletcher is bound by his oath of office as Governor to follow
the law:
“T will support the constitution of the United States and the
constitution of this Commonwealth, and be faithful and true to the
Commonwealth of Kentucky so long as I continue a citizen thereof, and that
I will faithfully execute, to the best of my ability, the office of Governor,
according to law...”
4. Dr. Fletcher, as Governor, is empowered by Section 77 of the
Kentucky Constitution:
“He shall have power to remit fines and forfeitures, commute
sentences, grant reprieves and pardons, except in cases of impeachment, and
he shall file with each application therefore a statement of the reasons for his
decision thereon, which application and statement shall always be open to
public inspection.”
5. Kentucky Revised Statutes, Section 431.220 Execution of Death
Sentence, Subsection (3) provides:
“No physician shall be involved in the conduct of an execution
except to certify cause of death provided that the condemned is declared
dead by another person.”
6. Dr. Fletcher, as Governor, has received a letter dated October 12,
2004 from the Attorney General of Kentucky advising that the appeals of
inmate Thomas Bowling, convicted of a capital crime and sentenced to be
executed, have been completed and requesting that an “execution date be set
immediately.” If Thomas Bowling is now to be executed, a death warrant
must be signed by the Governor, “under his hand”, directing the Warden at
the Kentucky State Penitentiary at Eddyville to carry out the execution by
lethal injection on a date set by the Governor.
