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Inmate on Kentucky's death row rejected for hip surgery

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Two Kentucky hospitals have rejected requests to perform a $56,000 hip replacement surgery on a death row inmate whose execution date could come this year.

After more than a year of efforts to find a facility to perform the surgery on 56-year-old Robert Foley, the University of Louisville Hospital and the University of Kentucky Medical Center turned down the state’s request.

The decisions are noted in a court filing Tuesday. They leave Foley’s immediate future in limbo, but he is one of two Kentucky death row inmates whose executions are waiting to be scheduled.

Foley was convicted of killing six people in eastern Kentucky in 1989 and 1991, making him the most prolific killer on the state’s death row.

Kentucky is trying to restart executions after a nearly four-year delay.

Source: The Associated Press, March 26, 2013

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