Judge Stephen Ryan agreed to an interview with Kaye Gallagher, a former staff person,
and current Board member, of the Kentucky Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. Here
is an account of that conversation.
Retired Judge Stephen P. Ryan didn't grow up in a family of lawyers. His family lived on
a small farm in Louisville's Rubbertown neighborhood; his dad was a railroad worker and
his mom could be found behind the counter at the nearby grocery. The first in his family
to graduate from college, he spent some time in the Army. When he returned, he got his
law degree from the University of Louisville.
Prior to taking the judge's chair, he got a glimpse of both sides of the courtroom while
working as an assistant Commonwealth's Attorney and as a criminal defense lawyer.
He has worn the robe for 23 years. In Jefferson County, that includes ten years as district
judge and three as circuit judge. He served as senior judge for three years.
While a circuit judge, he had three death-penalty trials, two of which received a death
sentence. He also revised the death penalty manual while serving on the Circuit Judge
Educational Committee.
During the last death penalty trial, Ryan began rethinking the death penalty. Sherman
Noble was a Vietnam veteran with serious issues involving mental health and violence.
For years, he was either in mental hospitals or jail. Now, he was accused of killing three
men. Noble insisted on defending himself and received a death sentence. That case
"pushed me over the edge," Ryan said, adding it's time for pause and reconsideration
when it comes to capital punishment.
Cost rises to the top as his chief concern, along with the possibility of executing an
innocent person. "What will you do if there's a mistake later discovered?" he asked.
Lawmakers need to see capital punishment as a drain on the criminal justice system in
addition to the state's budget. Death-penalty eligible cases are taken more seriously, as
they should. But that also means more expense. "As a judge we'd spend a week picking a
jury (for a death-penalty trial) and then spend so much on the resources for the public
defenders and lawyers and then, the appeals start," he said.
Appeals keep inmates on Death Row for 15 to 20 years, which adds up to more money
spent. "Death row is a waste of resources," he added. Ryan believes if lawmakers could
see the real cost of death sentences in Kentucky, they would choose abolition.
"Somebody will have to go back to (Harold) McQueen (who was executed in 1997) and
put it in today's dollars of how much we have spent and show how many kids we can
educate for that money."
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