Executions have been on hold in Kentucky since 2010, when Franklin Circuit Judge Philip Shepherd began a review of the state’s lethal injec­tion pro­to­col. The state revised its pro­to­col in 2012 to call for a one-drug method, with a two-drug method as a back­up if spe­cif­ic drugs were not avail­able. Now, that new pro­to­col is also being scru­ti­nized because it calls for the same drugs that caused the botched exe­cu­tion of Dennis McGuire in Ohio. Corrections offi­cials say they don’t know if any lethal injec­tion drugs would be avail­able, because the Department of Corrections is cur­rent­ly, ​“pro­hib­it­ed from tak­ing any steps regard­ing exe­cu­tion — and this would include the pur­chase of the drugs, so we don’t know if they are avail­able because we haven’t tried to pur­chase.” David Barron, an attor­ney rep­re­sent­ing five inmates on death row, called the Ohio exe­cu­tion, ​“an utter dis­as­ter,” and said that Kentucky’s plan to use a small­er dose is, ​“not enough to pre­vent the con­demned per­son from feel­ing pain.” Earlier this year, Republican state Representative David Floyd pro­posed a bill to repeal the death penal­ty in Kentucky, say­ing ​“The gov­ern­ment needs to be infal­li­ble when it comes to killing peo­ple and it’s not,” adding, ​“The alter­na­tive of life in prison is much more cost effective.”

(J. Riley, ​“Flawed exe­cu­tions in oth­er states cause more death penal­ty scruti­ny in Kentucky,” WDRB, May 30, 2014.) See Lethal Injection and Recent Legislation.

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