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Attorney General Russell Coleman announced on Friday that the Attorney General’s Office returned to Franklin Circuit Court in an effort to have a judge end the nearly 15-year-old ban on the imposition of the death penalty for death row inmates in Kentucky.

On Wednesday, the Attorney General’s Office filed an 11-page document in Franklin Circuit Court asking for rulings and a memorandum in support of the AG’s offices motion to end the death penalty ban. Earlier this year, the Kentucky Supreme Court opened the door for the Franklin Circuit Court to reach a definitive decision.

In 2010, Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd blocked any imposition of the death penalty in the Commonwealth until certain criteria were met. In March of this year, Gov. Andy Beshear’s Administration adopted an amended capital punishment regulation, which brought the state’s policy into full compliance with the Franklin Circuit Court’s previous rulings. Since then, Coleman’s office has sought to end the extended delay of the execution ban.

“The victims of these brutal crimes and their families deserve the justice that was lawfully delivered by a Kentucky jury – in some cases decades ago,” Coleman said. “The seemingly endless delays have inflicted unnecessary pain on these families. We are asking the Court to respect the juries’ verdicts and give these victims and their families the closure they have waited so long for.”

One of the prisoners benefiting from the Franklin Circuit Court’s injunction is the man convicted of and sentenced to death for the murders of Powell County Sheriff Steve Bennett and Deputy Sheriff Arthur Briscoe in 1992. The two law enforcement officials were shot and killed while attempting to serve twice-convicted felon Ralph Baze with warrants from Ohio. Baze was sentenced to death in 1994, and now, a  full 30 years later, he remains on death row in the Kentucky State Penitentiary at Eddyville.

Lisa Briscoe Lally, who was the sister and sister-in-law of the fallen officers, told Louisville Public Media, “We’re fed up with the delays. Fed up. Totally fed up. It’s like the state of Kentucky has forgotten how heinously my brother and brother-in-law were murdered.”

 

There are currently 24 men and one woman on Kentucky’s death row, according to the Department of Corrections.