The Death Penalty in Kentucky:
CHANGING ATTITUDES
Three people have been executed in
Kentucky since the 1976 reinstatement
of capital punishment, all of them for
aggravated murder. Two of them involved
inmates who dropped their appeals and
agreed to be executed. The last execution
occurred in November 2008.
Since that time, questions related to
Kentucky’s lethal injection protocol and
other matters have prompted state courts
to put executions on hold while the legal
issues are addressed. Kentuckians have
also learned more about the serious flaws
in the state’s capital punishment system,
prompting growing support for an official
suspension of executions.
In 2011, following an exhaustive two-year
review, a report released by the American
Bar Association’s Kentucky Assessment
Team revealed serious problems related
to fairness and accuracy in the use of
the death penalty in Kentucky. A poll
taken that year found that 62 percent of
Kentuckians supported a temporary halt
to executions.
Support for a moratorium continues to
grow. A poll conducted earlier this year
by the University of Kentucky Survey
Research Center found that 72.4 percent
would support a decision by the governor
to halt all executions until problems with
the state’s system can be addressed.
Issues related to cost, fairness and the
impact on victims’ families also found
Kentuckians favoring punishments other
than the death penalty.
If it were shown that because of the
constitutionally mandated appeals and
additional trials and housing costs associated
with the death penalty that the death penalty
costs taxpayers substantially more than
sentencing prisoners to life with no possibility of
parole would you support or oppose replacing
the death penalty with a sentence of life in
prison without the possibility of parole?
Stroialy Strongly
support oppais
Somewhat Somewhat
support PP
When told of its high cost, 68%
of Kentuckians support replacing
the death penalty with life without
parole
Recent Poll Results
In the U. S. at least 155 people have been
wrongfully convicted and sentenced to die for
crimes they did not commit. Some innocent
people have even been executed. The death
penalty carries too much risk of executing an
innocent person.
Strongly
sticigly disagree
agree
Somewhat
disagree
Somewhat
agree
71.6% of Kentuckians agree that
the capital punishment system risks
executing the innocent
Death penalty cases can drag on for more than
a decade, forcing victims’ families to endure
years of uncertainty and waiting. In contrast, a
sentence of life in prison without parole could
offer swift and certain justice that allows victims
to move on with the healing process as soon as
the trial is over. Murderers need to be severely
punished, but Kentucky‘s death penalty system
isn't working and should be replaced with life in
prison without the possibility of parole.
Strongly
disagree
Strongly
agree
Somewhat
disagree
36.8%
Somewhat
agree
64% of Kentuckians support
replacing the death penalty with a
sentence of life without parole
Source: The University of Kentucky Survey Research Center conducted interviews between March 4 and April 30, 2016, with 684 Kentuckians over the
age of 18. The poll had a margin of error of + or ~ 3.8%.
American Bar
Association Review
‘The findings of a two-year review by
a team of Kentucky attorneys, former
Kentucky Supreme Court justices
and law school professors included:
« An error rate of more than 60
percent on death penalty cases
~ meaning most death sentences
have been overturned on appeal
by Kentucky or federal courts.
«The lack of a requirement that
evidence in criminal cases be
retained as long as a defendant
remains incarcerated.
¢ The absence of uniform standards
on eyewitness identifications and
interrogations.
¢ Public defender caseloads far in
excess of national averages and
salaries that are far below those of
attorneys with similar experience
in surrounding states.
+ No statewide standards governing
the qualifications and training
of attorneys appointed to handle
capital cases.
Other Voices
“The ABA review suggests that the death penalty is broken
beyond repair in Kentucky. Replacing it with life without
parole is the best approach for our state - removing the
possibility that an innocent person will be executed, saving
limited tax dollars, protecting public safety and providing
certainty and justice to the families of victims.”
Former Assistant Commonwealth’ Attorney Joseph P. Gutmann
Retired Circuit Judge Stephen Ryan
Former Commonwealth’ Attorney J. Stewart Schneider
“I oppose the death penalty ... because I believe it is
illogical for the state to teach citizens not to kill by killing.
... Corrections officials are expected to commit the most
premeditated murder imaginable.”
Allan Ault, former Director of Corrections for five governors in three states
“The long decades of waiting for the justice system to work
through all the appeals only rekindles our horror to be relived.
Many of us become weary of that anger and wish for some
resolution so we might escape living in the past and get back
into life.”
Ben Griffith, whose brother was murdered in 1986
“Tt’s counterintuitive, but taxpayers spend far more on our
system of capital punishment than we would if the death
penalty were not an option. Every study undertaken in the U.S.
concludes that our death penalty system is far more costly than
a criminal justice system in which the maximum sentence is
life without the possibility of parole.”
Former State Representative David Floyd, R-Bardstown
Kentucky Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty
P.O. Box 3092 Louisville KY 40201-3092
kcadp.org
502.636.1330
kcadp3092@gmail.com
August 2016
