Kentucky’s recent­ly-formed Criminal Justice Policy Assessment Council will be exam­in­ing the state’s crim­i­nal code, and is expect­ed to exam­ine a wide range of crim­i­nal jus­tice issues — includ­ing the death penal­ty — in the first major over­haul of Kentucky’s crim­i­nal code since the 1970s. The coun­cil, which was formed by Gov. Matt Bevin, includes leg­is­la­tors, judges, crim­i­nal jus­tice experts, and reli­gious lead­ers, charged with pro­duc­ing a list of rec­om­men­da­tions for Kentucky law­mak­ers. One coun­cil mem­ber, Bishop William Medley, of the Catholic Diocese of Owensboro, has expressed moral oppo­si­tion to the death penal­ty, and received back­ing for repeal­ing the pun­ish­ment from some in the courts and the pros­e­cu­tion bar. Circuit Judge Jay Wethington, a for­mer pros­e­cu­tor who pros­e­cut­ed death penal­ty cas­es told the Messenger-Inquirer that he was ​“going to side with … Bishop Medley” on that issue, but for dif­fer­ent rea­sons. ​“We need to get rid of the death penal­ty,” he said. ​“We spend too much mon­ey for the results.” Meanwhile, three for­mer Kentucky pros­e­cu­tors wrote an op-ed for Louisville’s Courier-Journal urg­ing abo­li­tion of the death penal­ty. Joseph Gutmann (pic­tured), Stephen Ryan, and J. Stewart Schneider dis­cussed the results of a recent University of Kentucky poll, which found that a large major­i­ty (72.4%) of Kentuckians sup­port a mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions. They not­ed that sup­port for the death penal­ty has risen since 2011, when the American Bar Association released a study that found seri­ous prob­lems with Kentucky’s appli­ca­tion of the death penal­ty. At that point, 62% of Kentuckians favored a sus­pen­sion of exe­cu­tions. They con­clude, ​“These poll results make it clear that Kentuckians’ con­cern about the fair­ness of the state’s crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem is grow­ing. As we have writ­ten before, replac­ing the death penal­ty with life with­out parole is the best approach for our state – pro­tect­ing pub­lic safe­ty, pro­vid­ing jus­tice to the fam­i­lies of vic­tims, remov­ing the pos­si­bil­i­ty that an inno­cent per­son will be exe­cut­ed and sav­ing lim­it­ed tax dollars.”

(J. Mayse, ​“Judges voice opin­ions on how to improve state’s penal code,” The Messenger-Inquirer, July 25, 2016; J. Gutmann, S. Ryan, and J. S. Schneider, ​“Support grows for sus­pend­ing Ky. death penal­ty,” Courier-Journal, August 2, 2016.) See Public Opinion and Arbitrariness.

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