Executions will not resume in Kentucky under a decision by the state Supreme Court Thursday.
Instead, the legal battle over the death penalty appears to be returning to the Franklin Circuit Court in the capital Frankfort, where a temporary injunction blocking executions, issued by a judge in 2010, could be modified or revoked in the coming months.
Marco Allen Chapman was the last person executed by the state of Kentucky. Chapman was killed by lethal injection in 2008 for the murder of two children and the rape of their mother.
In March, Republican Attorney General Russell Coleman, frustrated over long delays as 25 inmates piled up on death row, filed a motion in Franklin Circuit Court to vacate the 2010 order.
Coleman said the reasons for Franklin Circuit Chief Judge Phillip Shepherd’s order are no longer valid. Recently, he said, the Department of Corrections addressed concerns about the execution of people with intellectual disabilities with a new rule that protects prisoners with intellectual disabilities or an IQ of 75 or less.
In May, Shepherd wrote that he would “reserve” the ruling on Coleman’s request for the time being.
The protocols behind the death penalty that he originally criticized have been revised, Shepherd said. But at the same time he said:[t]There is currently no active death warrant in this case.” It has not yet been decided whether the revised regulations are constitutional, Shepherd said.
Coleman’s request for relief was appealed to the Supreme Court.
But the Supreme Court ruled unanimously on Thursday that it is unable to interfere at this time.
The attorney general can ask Shepherd for a hearing in the case and request a final ruling on whether his 2010 order should be continued or rescinded. If Shepherd declines to make such a ruling, he could file a writ asking the Supreme Court to enforce the issue, Lexington Chief Justice Laurance VanMeter wrote for the court.
Coleman’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday.
