Call to Order and Roll Call
The 2nd meeting of the Interim Joint Committee on Judiciary was held on Friday, August 1, 2014, at<MeetTime> 10:00 AM, in Paducah. Representative John Tilley, Co-Chair, called the meeting to order, and the secretary called the roll.
Present were:
Members: Senator Whitney Westerfield, Co-Chair; Representative John Tilley, Co-Chair; Senators Perry B. Clark, Sara Beth Gregory, Dan "Malano" Seum, and Robin L. Webb; Representatives Johnny Bell, Joseph M. Fischer, Joni L. Jenkins, Thomas Kerr, Mary Lou Marzian, Reginald Meeks, Suzanne Miles, Darryl T. Owens, Ryan Quarles, Tom Riner, Steven Rudy, Gerald Watkins, and Brent Yonts.
Guests: Tandee Ogburn, Senator Gerald Neal, Representative David Floyd, Secretary J. Michael Brown, Rev. Dr. Marian Taylor, Jason Hall, Dr. Mark Coppenger, Father Pat Delahanty, Ben Griffith, Katherine Nichols, Ed Monahan, Ernie Lewis, G.L. Ovey, and Dr. Allen Ault.
LRC Staff: Jon Grate, Matt Trebelhorn, Dallas Hurley, Alice Lyon, and Matthew Doane.
Volunteers of America: Addiction Recovery Programs
Tandee Ogburn, Director of Community Engagement at the Volunteers of America (VOA), discussed the various drug treatment programs her organization provides, focusing on Freedom House, a long-term residential drug treatment program designed specifically for pregnant women suffering from substance abuse disorders. Women at Freedom House stay there through their pregnancy and up to nine weeks after their child is born. About 85 healthy infants have been born to women in the Freedom House program since its inception in the mid 1990s. Researchers at the University of Louisville calculated that the Freedom House program resulted in $21 million in savings to the state and charitable organizations.
Responding to a question from Representative Tilley, Ms. Ogburn said that VOA receives almost all of its funding through private fundraising efforts. Responding to a question from Representative Riner, Ms. Ogburn said that the total annual operating budget for Freedom House is about $300,000. Representative Meeks asked Ms. Ogburn for a list of treatment center locations and whether there has been an assessment of need in the state or Jefferson County for services provided by Freedom House. Ms. Ogburn said that there was only one Freedom House location (South Shelby Street in Louisville) and that she was unaware of any assessment of need. Responding to a question from Senator Westerfield, Ms. Ogburn said that there are 10 treatment slots for the 40 women seeking treatment.
Legislative Perspectives on Capital Punishment
Senator Neal said that his views on capital punishment have changed over the years for a variety of reasons that include racial and socio-economic disparities in imposition of the sentence, exonerations using DNA technology, and the cost of housing death row inmates while they appeal their sentences. Senator Neal stated that the United States is the last of the western industrialized nations to still impose the death penalty, which undermines the credibility of the American justice system. He said that all humans are entitled to “a right of redemption.”
Representative Floyd said that his opposition to the death penalty began after he learned that since 1976 over 100 former death row inmates have been exonerated through advances in DNA technology. He said that there is no amount of risk of executing an innocent person that is acceptable to him, and he spoke about conflicting moral justifications for capital punishment in the Old and New Testaments of the Bible.
Execution Status in Kentucky and Cost
Secretary J. Michael Brown said that there are 33 inmates on death row in the Commonwealth, with 32 male inmates housed in the Kentucky State Penitentiary in Eddyville and one female inmate housed in the Kentucky Correctional Institution for Women in Pewee Valley. Inmates convicted before 1998 have the option to choose either electrocution or lethal injection, while inmates convicted after 1998 can only be put to death by lethal injection. A Franklin Circuit Court injunction prevents executions in the Commonwealth.
Responding to a question posed by Representative Watkins, Secretary Brown stated that there are four African American inmates on death row. Responding to a question from Representative Meeks, Secretary Brown stated that Kentucky’s three-drug protocol, which utilized sodium thiopental, pancuronium bromide, and potassium chloride, was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court. The Department of Corrections (DOC) has been unable to obtain sodium thiopental since the Supreme Court decision because the manufacturer of the drug refuses to sell it to customers that use it to execute people. Secretary Brown said that the DOC had voluntarily surrendered its remaining supplies of sodium thiopental to the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) in 2011. Secretary Brown explained that Kentucky’s death penalty protocol regulations have been amended to include a one-drug protocol, using either sodium thiopental or pentobarbital, and an alternative two-drug protocol, using midazolam and hydromorphone.
Secretary Brown said that the cost of maintaining Kentucky’s death row at the Kentucky State Penitentiary is roughly $150,000 annually, or about $5,000 more per death row inmate than housing an ordinary prisoner. Secretary Brown said that an execution costs less than $80,000, but that does not include the cost of inmate appeals and court appearances.
Faith-based Perspectives on Capital Punishment
Rev. Dr. Marian Taylor, Executive Director of the Kentucky Council of Churches, said that the council represents 800,000 Kentucky Christians who are united in their opposition to the death penalty on various moral grounds. He addressed the need for redemption and restorative justice in society, which cannot occur with the imposition of the death penalty.
Jason Hall, the Executive Director of the Catholic Conference of Kentucky, provided the Roman Catholic Church’s perspective on capital punishment. Mr. Hall stated that humans are created in God’s image and endowed with dignity that must be protected. Catholics see it as the role of Church to protect the dignity of every individual by opposing capital punishment.
Responding to question from Representative Fischer, Mr. Hall stated that, according to the Roman Catholic Church, there were no circumstances that could justify the imposition of the death penalty. Representative Fischer asked Mr. Hall what had changed the Roman Catholic Church’s position on capital punishment in the last 25 years. Mr. Hall stated that the advent of maximum security prisons that can effectively protect the public from dangerous individuals and uncontroverted evidence of wrongful convictions and executions had contributed to a change in the Church’s support for the imposition of the death penalty.
Dr. Mark Coppenger, a professor from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, quoted Charles Hodge, C.S. Lewis, and Bishop Joseph Butler, all of whom supported the death penalty. Dr. Coppenger stated that the Roman Catholic Church did not oppose the imposition of the death penalty for over 1,900 years. He said that a person could be anti-abortion and pro-capital punishment without being hypocritical. Addressing concerns about botched executions, Dr. Coppenger stated that comparing the suffering of executed murderers to that of murder victims is “a little bit overwrought.” Dr. Coppenger said that the imposition of the death penalty is about justice, not expediency or cost.
Crime Victim Perspectives on Capital Punishment
Rev. Father Patrick Delahanty, Chair of the Kentucky Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (KCADP), provided quotes and anecdotes from various members of KCADP who support the repeal of the death penalty. Responding to a question from Representative Bell, Rev. Delahanty said that, despite a limited number of aggravating circumstances that would allow a jury to sentence a defendant to death, the imposition of the death penalty is imperfect because it is a system implemented by humans who are fallible.
Ben Griffith, a KCADP member, recounted the murder of his brother, Chris Griffith, in Missouri. The man responsible for Chris Griffith’s murder was executed over the objections of Mr. Griffith and his parents. He and his parents had felt like they had been victimized again by the execution of his brother’s killer. Sentencing a murderer to life without parole was far less stressful on the families of crime victims because there would usually not be a long appeals process. He said that the money that a state could save by eliminating the death penalty as a sentencing option could be used to treat the trauma experienced by crime victims’ surviving family members.
Katherine Nichols, a representative from Kentuckians’ Voice for Crime Victims (KVCV), said that the death penalty should only be retained for the most heinous crimes. She explained the extent to which the murder of a family member constantly affects the daily lives of surviving family members. Ms. Nichols recounted the traumatic day that she discovered the murdered body of her brother in his own home and the pain it continues to cause her and her family.
Legal Perspectives on Capital Punishment
Ernie Lewis, of the Kentucky Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (KACDL), gave a broad overview of U.S. Supreme Court death penalty jurisprudence. Citing the Court’s decision in Gregg v. Georgia, Mr. Lewis explained that guided discretion statutes were upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court as a way to minimize the risk of arbitrary capital sentencing. The American Law Institute (ALI) created the concept of guided discretion for jury instructions in capital cases, but has since abandoned such efforts. Ed Monahan, Kentucky’s Public Advocate, stated that the General Assembly should either fix Kentucky’s current death penalty statutes using the recommendations from the American Bar Association, or eliminate the death penalty altogether because the system is rife with error, waste, and abuse.
G.L. Ovey, Commonwealth’s Attorney for the 56th Judicial District, said the question that the General Assembly should be asking is not whether the death penalty either deters crime or is cost effective, but whether the death penalty is a just and proper sentence. He recounted the story of man he had prosecuted for the murder of three children and the rape and attempted murder of their mother. He said the death penalty should be retained as a sentencing option.
Executions and Institutional Stress
Dr. Allen Ault, Dean of Criminal Justice Studies at Eastern Kentucky University, said that he had murdered five men as an agent of the state. Correctional officers who participate in executions often suffer from substance abuse and other mental health disorders. Responding to a comment by Representative Fischer, Dr. Ault said that the studies from Emory University and University of Colorado at Denver that claim to show that capital punishment has a deterrent effect on violent crime had flawed methodology. He said that all death row inmates that he had known were not deterred by the possibility of the death penalty as a sentencing option.
There being no further action, the meeting was adjourned.