"Court upholds temporary ban on executions," is the title of Brett Barrouquere's AP report, via KY Post.
A ban on executions in Kentucky may stay in place while a judge decides if the state's lethal injection protocol is adequate, the Kentucky Supreme Court ruled Thursday.
The court, by a 5-2 vote, left in place a lower court's order temporarily barring executions while condemned inmate Gregory L. Wilson, 54, and other death row inmates challenge the state's execution protocol.
The decision means that Kentucky won't be able to carry out an execution, despite having recently purchased enough of a key drug to carry out three lethal injections.
Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd issued the order in September as the state prepared to execute Wilson for the 1987 kidnapping, rape and murder of 36-year-old Debbie Pooley in northern Kentucky. Shepherd found the state lacked "adequate safeguards" to assess an inmate's mental state once an execution date has been set.
The high court said the best option right now is to let the case play out before Shepherd.
"We express no opinion on the merits of the Franklin Circuit Court on these issues," the court wrote in an opinion signed by Chief Justice John D. Minton.
Shepherd told attorneys Monday that he's considering a final opinion in the case.
At the time of Shepherd's initial ruling, Gov. Steve Beshear had an execution date set for Wilson and was weighing requests to set dates for inmates Ralph Baze and Robert Foley. The warrant for Wilson expired when he wasn't executed Sept. 16.
Attorney General Jack Conway's office said warrant requests for Baze and Foley are still active. Prosecutors had asked the high court to overturn Shepherd's decision.
The high court said because there are no active execution dates, there is no rush to consider Shepherd's decision before his final opinion.
"We certainly recognize that some view any delay in carrying out the death sentences of Wilson and other death row inmates as an injury and an injustice to the Commonwealth, but we also believe that granting the requested writ would not further Commonwealth's officers' efforts to meet obligations to comply with the law in administering the death penalty," the court wrote.
And:
Public defender David Barron, who represents Baze, said the decision shows Kentucky prematurely set execution dates while there were valid questions about the state's protocol.
"The court found that the public's interest is best served by allowing the lower court to decide if the regulations have been properly adopted," Barron said.
The decision marks at least the third time questions about Kentucky's execution protocol have stopped executions. The state's high court halted executions in 2004 in a case that the U.S. Supreme Court used to uphold the constitutionality of the three-drug lethal injection process. In November 2009, the state justices ordered Kentucky to readopt the lethal injection protocol because it wasn't properly put into place.
The Kentucky Supreme Court order in Conway v. Shepherd is in Adobe .pdf format. Earlier lethal injection coverage from Kentucky begins at the link;
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