One of the key issues raised in a new study released Wednesday, is questions about how good of a defense some people on death row got in court.
The results of a study, that lasted more than 2 years, were released Wednesday in Frankfort. The people behind the 450 pages of research say Kentucky has some serious work to do when it comes to how the state handles death penalty cases.
The study was conducted by the American Bar Association and included lawyers, professors and former Kentucky Supreme Court Justices.
It highlights what the group calls some key problems. One of the most notably was a look at the last 78 people sentenced to death in Kentucky. The group says 50 of those inmates had his or her death sentence overturned on appeal.
The groups say one of the problems is public defenders have caseloads that are too big and salaries that are too small. They also say Kentucky doesn't require evidence be kept, meaning post conviction DNA testing can be difficult and in some cases impossible.
Because of the findings the ABA is asking for a temporary suspension of executions in Kentucky. "The focus of the report is to provide an analysis and recommendations for assuring the process is fair and impartial, the overriding concern being that no innocent person is put to death" said ABA President Bill Robinson. The group says a poll it conducted, as part of the study, showed a majority of Kentuckians agree with a temporary suspension.
The report includes recommendations that researchers say could improve the implementation of the death penalty in the state. The report was given to the governor's office and the Attorney General. Late Wednesday morning Governor Beshear responded by saying: “We remain under a stay and cannot implement our execution protocol until further direction from the Court. In the meantime, we will carefully review and study the 400-plus page report provided by the ABA assessment team.”
Source: WKYT News, December 7, 2011
Kentucky Legal Team Identifies Problems With Commonwealth’s Death Penalty System, Calls for Moratorium on Executions
A 2-year review of Kentucky’s system of capital punishment concludes that the commonwealth doesn’t adequately ensure fairness or sufficiently guard against executing the innocent. The report, released today by the American Bar Association, calls for a suspension of executions in Kentucky until the identified problems are addressed and corrected.
The Kentucky-based assessment team was comprised of former state Supreme Court judges, a state legislator, state bar leaders, law school professors and other lawyers from the commonwealth. The team also consulted with a number of state government and judicial entities, law enforcement and criminal justice groups.
“The assessment team in Kentucky is an esteemed group of highly dedicated individuals who are committed to ensuring justice,” said ABA President Wm. T. (Bill) Robinson III, a native of the state. “The report provides a thorough analysis of the death penalty system, and identifies many areas that need reform,” he said.
The report evaluates Kentucky’s laws, rules, procedures, standards and guidelines relating to administration of the death penalty, and uses 92 benchmarks set by the ABA to evaluate death penalty jurisprudence. The report found that Kentucky is in full compliance with six protocols, partial compliance with 40 and not in compliance with 26. The team did not have sufficient information to assess compliance with 20 of the benchmarks.
Assessment team co-chair Linda Ewald, professor emeritus at Louis D. Brandeis School of Law, says that the system in Kentucky does not adequately assure that capital defendants receive fair treatment. “The problems with the death penalty system are substantial, and need to be addressed so that we also minimize the risk of executing the innocent,” she said.
The report identified the following issues as most in need of reform:
- Inadequate protections to guard against wrongful convictions
- Inconsistent and disproportionate capital charging and sentencing
- Deficiencies and inadequate funding of the capital defender system
- Inadequacies in post-conviction review to correct error
- Capital juror confusion
- Imposition of a death sentence on people with mental retardation and severe mental disability
- Overall lack of data keeping on capital charging and sentencing practices
The report recommends several measures to bring the commonwealth into compliance with ABA protocols, including state-specific measures to address the issues raised in the 438-page report. The team is recommending a suspension of executions in the commonwealth until problematic issues are rectified.
The report notes that Kentucky has made some progress in seeking to achieve fairness and accuracy in its administration of the death penalty. Those measures include: the establishment of a statewide capital defender to represent indigent capital defendants and death row inmates; adoption of a post-conviction DNA testing statute to minimize the risk of executing the innocent; and adoption of a racial justice act that seeks to eliminate racial and ethnic bias in application of the death penalty in the commonwealth.
In 2003, the ABA’s Death Penalty Moratorium Implementation Project, housed in the Section of Individual Rights and Responsibilities, began several comprehensive evaluations of the death penalty, like the one conducted in Kentucky. The ABA has examined administration of the death penalty in Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Tennessee. The Project expects to release additional reports on Missouri, Texas and Virginia. The reports have not been adopted by the ABA House of Delegates.
With nearly 400,000 members, the American Bar Association is the largest voluntary professional membership organization in the world. As the national voice of the legal profession, the ABA works to improve the administration of justice, promotes programs that assist lawyers and judges in their work, accredits law schools, provides continuing legal education, and works to build public understanding around the world of the importance of the rule of law.
Source: ABA Now, December 7, 2011
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