"Place moratorium on Ky. executions," is the title of a Lexington Herald-Leader editorial. It appeared in the Saturday edition.
The American Bar Association's study of capital punishment in Kentucky is full of disturbing facts, such as:
- At least 10 of the 78 people sentenced to death since 1976 were represented by lawyers who were later disbarred.
- Kentucky has inadequate protections against convicting the innocent and permits destruction of evidence while a person is imprisoned, which would make a DNA exoneration impossible.
- Among jurors, there is a widespread lack of understanding of how they were supposed to weigh the evidence in death penalty cases.
Even supporters of capital punishment, which includes this editorial page, will come away from this study with serious doubts about the fairness and accuracy of the process that condemned 34 people to Kentucky's Death Row.
The study took two years and was overseen by a panel of Kentucky lawyers and law professors, including former Supreme Court justices James Keller and Martin Johnstone.
The ABA, which has no position on the death penalty, has undertaken similar assessments in eight other states, and in five of them recommended a moratorium on executions while flaws in the system were addressed.
The Louisville Courier-Journal carried the OpEd, "Suspend Kentucky executions until system is reformed: Ensuring justice must be our primary concern," written by by William T. (Bill) Robinson III, James E. Keller, and Martin E. Johnstone; all participants in the assessment.
Consider the case of a person convicted and sentenced to die with only the evidence of inadmissible hearsay linking him to the crime. Or the person whose defense counsel consisted of a “semi-retired” volunteer lawyer with a drinking problem and a second lawyer with no experience in trying felony cases. Another egregious case involves a defendant whose lawyers failed to present any evidence that would convince the jury to spare his life, when available evidence would have supported a lesser sentence.
We’re saddened to report that these are not only real death penalty cases in Kentucky, but they’re also all too common. The list of problematic cases is staggering, and review of the system is deeply troubling. Fairness, impartiality and effectiveness of counsel have been undermined by serious flaws that reveal systemic problems in administration of the death penalty in the commonwealth.
Since Kentucky reinstated the death penalty in 1976, 50 of the 78 people sentenced to death have had a death sentence or conviction overturned on appeal due to serious errors or misconduct that occurred at trial.
Most people facing the death penalty are not sympathetic figures. Their alleged crimes are abhorrent and families of the victims experience unfathomable grief. But delivering justice is the foundation of our system — a principle that we must uphold for everyone — even those whose actions are repugnant and even when outraged communities desire to see the ultimate punishment.
And:
We are hopeful that our detailed report and analysis will be a call to action for reform of the death penalty system.In Kentucky, we must reserve capital punishment for the most heinous of offenses and offenders; we have to make sure that we are getting it right. We owe the citizens of this commonwealth no less.
The Kentucky Assessment on the Death Penalty is available in Adobe .pdf format at the ABA Moratorium Implementation Project's website.
Earlier coverage of the ABA's Kentucky report begins at the link.
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