Meredith co-sponsors bill to abolish the death penalty in Kentucky

GOP State Sen. Steve Meredith is co-sponsoring a bill filed by a Louisville Democrat to abolish the death penalty in Kentucky.

The bill is sponsored by Gerald Neal, a long-serving Democrat from Louisville and Minority Floor Leader, and replaces execution with life in prison.

Senate Bill 350 would “create a new section of KRS Chapter 532 to abolish the death penalty and replace it with life imprisonment without parole for inmates presently sentenced to death; amend KRS 532.030 to remove the death penalty; amend KRS 640.040 to prohibit life imprisonment without benefit of parole for a juvenile offender convicted of a capital offense; amend KRS 640.010 to define ‘serious intellectual disability’ and ‘significant subaverage general intellectual functioning.’”

Neal has filed bills to abolish capital punishment in Kentucky at least eight times since 2012. None of the previous bills have made it past the hearing stage.

There are currently 25 inmates on Kentucky’s death row. The state has not carried out a death penalty since 2008.

Neal told WAVE.com that executing people costs the state considerably more money than an inmate serving life in prison, and that the U.S. justice system is imperfect.

“Some people don’t realize the cost is three to four times,” he told the Louisville television station, as he also noted that “200 individuals have been exonerated because of mistakes in the system itself … to me, that’s enough right there.”

Twenty-three states have outlawed the death penalty, along with Washington D.C.

K105 reached out to Meredith for comment, but did not hear back from him.

(Photo: State Sen. Steve Meredith, R-Leitchfield)

By Ken Howlett, News Director

Contact Ken at ken@k105.com