Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman praised the General Assembly for overriding the governor’s veto of Senate Bill 251, which would remove bureaucratic red tape from the process to impose the death penalty in Kentucky.
The bill, sponsored by Sen. Steve West, R-Paris, allows the Kentucky Department of Corrections to set execution procedures through internal policies and memorandums, making the department exempt from formal administrative regulations. This allows a more streamlined process and avoids lengthy legal hurdles.
At least ten courts in other states have held their state’s department of corrections is not required to make regulations about the death-penalty process. Kentucky now joins that group and is no longer required to engage in a formal administrative rulemaking process to conduct executions.
Twenty-four inmates currently sit on Kentucky’s death row.
“Families and victims should matter more than the governor’s future political ambitions,” Coleman said. “I’m grateful to Sen. West and the General Assembly for this legislation and commend them overriding the governor’s veto.”
SB 251 also requires the Kentucky Department of Corrections to publish any internal policies online.
The final votes, largely along party lines, were 30-7 in the Senate and 74-16 in the House. Only a simple majority is required in Kentucky to override a gubernatorial veto.
Coleman’s office recently argued for the dismissal of a 2006 case, which is at the center of a 15-year ban on executions in the state. A dismissal would clear the way for about a dozen executions.
Marco Allen Chapman was the last person executed by the state. He died by lethal injection after rejecting any appeals on November 21, 2008, at the Kentucky State Penitentiary in Eddyville.
By Tom Latek, Kentucky Today
