The bill was filed in the Kentucky Senate in January by Democrat Sen. Gerald Neal and Republican Sens. Julie Raque Adams and Stephen Meredith.
The bill would “abolish the death penalty and replace it with life imprisonment without parole for inmates presently sentenced to death.”
Kentucky Leaders React
Gov. Andy Beshear, a Democrat, said the punishment has a place in society “in limited circumstances,” according to a Louisville ABC affiliate.“I believe that there are some crimes that are so horrific, and some people that are so dangerous, that merit the existence of the death penalty,” he said, according to the outlet. “So I look forward to hearing that discussion. And the grounds on, on which it’s, it’s based,” he said.
The governor also told the outlet there are potential discussions to be had about the cost of the death penalty versus life in prison.
In 2022, lawmakers passed into law an end to the death penalty for those with a documented diagnosis and active symptoms of mental illness at the time of their offense.
“I think there’s a growing awareness around the world that it is not appropriate to subject people who are seriously mentally ill to capital punishment,” Dunham said. “And that’s a view that’s been growing within the United States as well.”
Republican lawmakers at the time called it “a slippery slope that would end capital punishment entirely.”
Kentucky is surrounded by states with and without the death penalty, while the South as a whole contains the majority of states that still have the death penalty in the United States.
Ohio, Indiana, Missouri, and Tennessee all have the death penalty and surround Kentucky—while Illinois, Virginia, and West Virginia all do not. If passed and signed into law, Kentucky would become one of 24 states with no death penalty of any kind.