By MICHAEL CRIMMINS
Glasgow News 1
Republican Attorney General Russell Coleman is urging the Franklin County Circuit Court to dismiss a 2006 court case and resume executions.
“If the court dismisses this case, as we are seeking, it will pave the way for around a dozen death row inmates to finally receive their sentence,” Coleman said outside the courthouse. “These gruesome criminals deserve the lawful sentences they’ve received from Kentucky juries.”
There are 24 inmates on Kentucky’s death row, according to the Kentucky’s Justice and Public Safety Cabinet.
His nearly 30-minute press conference came after the attorney general’s Principal Deputy Attorney General Jack Heyburn argued before Franklin Circuit Court, urging the court to uphold the rule of law. He argued for the dismissal of a 2006 case that is at the center of the 15-year ban on executions in the Commonwealth, according to an attorney general press release.
There have been no executions in Kentucky since 2008 when Ralph Baze, who was sentenced to death for killing two police officers, appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which halted executions nationwide to hear the appeal before eventually allowing them to resume, according to outside reporting. The last execution in Kentucky was that of Marco Allen Chapman in November, 2008.
In 2010, while Baze’s civil case was ongoing, Franklin Circuit Court Judge Phillip Shepherd halted executions in the commonwealth, saying one of his concern was whether Kentucky had proper guardrails in place to avoid executing someone who has an intellectual disability or has been deemed insane, according to the Lexington Herald Leader.
Since he was sworn in as Attorney General in 2024, Coleman has made it a priority to “deliver justice to the Kentucky families who have spent decades waiting,” the release stated.
There is no timeline on when a Franklin Circuit Court judge would rule on the dismissal.
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