Kentucky Supreme Court Denies Attorney General’s Request to Remove Injunction on Executions

On October 24, 2024, the Kentucky Supreme Court denied a request by the Attorney General and the Kentucky Department of Corrections (KDOC) to remove an injunc­tion cur­rent­ly pro­hibit­ing exe­cu­tions in Kentucky. In 2010, a Franklin County Circuit judge ordered a tem­po­rary injunc­tion of all exe­cu­tions due to con­cerns regard­ing numer­ous aspects of Kentucky’s exe­cu­tion pro­to­col, includ­ing con­cerns about the men­tal sta­tus and intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ty sta­tus of death row pris­on­ers and the state’s lethal injec­tion pro­to­col. The state’s request to dis­solve the injunc­tion came after the KDOC com­plet­ed revis­ing por­tions of the exe­cu­tion pro­to­col in March 2024.

Following the revi­sion, the Attorney General peti­tioned to lift the 2010 injunc­tion, but Franklin County Circuit Court Judge Phillip Shepherd reserved rul­ing on the request while the court address­es numer­ous com­plex issues remain­ing around the pro­to­col. Attorney General Robert Coleman sought relief from the high­er court to dis­solve the injunc­tion. The Kentucky Supreme Court ulti­mate­ly dis­missed the Attorney General’s claim on the grounds it was not appealable.

Both sides have com­ment­ed on the deci­sion. In response to the rul­ing, AG Coleman said the deci­sion ​“sent us back to Franklin Circuit Court to con­tin­ue our efforts to end the 15-year ban on the law­ful impo­si­tion of the death penal­ty. On behalf of the vic­tims’ fam­i­lies who have suf­fered through a decades-long wait for jus­tice, that’s exact­ly what we intend to do.” Attorney David Barron, who rep­re­sents sev­er­al Kentucky death row pris­on­ers, remind­ed that ​“an exe­cu­tion is irre­versible. There can be no rem­e­dy for a wrong­ful exe­cu­tion or for an exe­cu­tion car­ried out though uncon­sti­tu­tion­al or oth­er­wise invalid exe­cu­tion pro­ce­dures.” He added that ​“there remain sub­stan­tial ques­tions about the valid­i­ty and con­sti­tu­tion­al­i­ty of Kentucky’s exe­cu­tion pro­ce­dures.” For Mr. Barron, the ​“rul­ing clears the door for the Franklin Circuit Court to resolve those issues, and for any nec­es­sary changes to the exe­cu­tion pro­ce­dures to be made.”

There are cur­rent­ly 25 indi­vid­u­als on Kentucky’s death row. The last exe­cu­tion car­ried out in Kentucky was in 2008, when Marco Allen Chapman was exe­cut­ed by lethal injection.