Tagged: death penalty

Activists with the Kentucky Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty have sent Governor Steve Beshear more than 1,500 postcards asking him to sign no more death warrants and get rid of the punishment. Each card calls the death penalty “a risky, arbitrary, unfair, ineffective and costly distraction from justice.”

From NPR: If the last presidential debate was any indication, you'll be hearing a lot about China in tonight's third and final face-off between President Obama and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.

The Kentucky Commission on Human Rights is calling on the state to end the use of the death penalty, saying it is often applied unfairly against minorities and the poor. The commissioners, who enforce state and federal civil rights laws, urged Kentucky lawmakers in a resolution last week to repeal the law that allows the use of the death penalty in some murder cases. The commission’s resolution will be submitted to Governor Steve Beshear and to each state legislator. As of April 1, Kentucky had 35 inmates on death row. Kentucky last executed an inmate in 2008.

Critics of Kentucky's proposed new death penalty method have asked officials to make multiple changes to how executions are carried out now that the state is switching to a one- or two-drug lethal injection. During a hearing Tuesday in Frankfort, public defenders, private attorneys and anti-death penalty activists said the rules Kentucky wants to put in place have multiple problems, including that condemned inmates aren't allowed access to their attorneys on the day of execution.