Kentucky Governor Commutes Death Sentence Before Leaving Office

Gov. Ernie Fletcher of Kentucky com­mut­ed the death sen­tence of Jeffrey D. Leonard for the 1983 mur­der of a Louisville store clerk before leav­ing office. Governor Fletcher reduced Leonard’s death sen­tence to life with­out parole. He had been con­vict­ed under the name of James Earl Slaughter. The Governor not­ed in his com­mu­ta­tion that Leonard was not pro­vid­ed with ade­quate rep­re­sen­ta­tion and that Leonard’s attor­ney did not even know his clien­t’s real name dur­ing the tri­al. The governor’s gen­er­al coun­sel, David Fleenor, stat­ed, ​“We’re not going to exe­cute some­body who clear­ly was denied a basic right.“

Governor Fletcher said he spent con­sid­er­able time review­ing the almost 1,000 cas­es of indi­vid­u­als who request­ed par­dons and com­mu­ta­tions. ​“None of those deci­sions that we have to make are easy but I feel like I can lay my head down and say we’ve done our very best to car­ry out the duties of the gov­er­nor till our last day,” he said.
(“100 Get Pardons, Commutations GOP Governor’s Final Acts,” by John Stamper, Lexington Herald-Leader, December 11, 2007). See also Clemency and Representation. There have been 3 com­mu­ta­tions of death sen­tences in 2007. There were none in 2006.