Death Penalty News

The Kentucky Supreme Court has heard oral argument and will soon decide whether subjecting youthful offenders under age 21 to the death penalty violates the constitutional prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment.  On September 19, 2019, the Court heard argument in the government’s appeals of two capital cases in which a trial judge barred county prosecutors from seeking the death penalty because the defendants charged with the murders were younger than age 21 when the killings took place. In August 2017, Fayette County Circuit Judge Ernesto Scorsone prohibited prosecutors from seeking the death penalty against Travis Bredhold, who was 18 years and 5 months old at the time he is alleged to have killed a gas station attendant.  In 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Roper v. Simmons that it was unconstitutional to impose the death penalty on offenders younger than age 18 when the crime occurred.  Citing new neuroscience research that portions ...

Kentucky could become the first death-penalty state in the nation to ban capital punishment for defendants who were between 18 and 21 years old at the time of their crimes. Attorney General Andy Beshear's office will ask the Kentucky Supreme Court Thursday to reverse a Fayette circuit judge’s rulings that the death penalty is unconstitutional for offenders in that age group because their brains are still developing and they lack the maturity to control their impulses and assess risks. Judge Ernesto Scorsone, who was known as a progressive during 24 years in the Kentucky House and Senate, also cited "evolving standards of decency." The U.S. Supreme Court cited the same factors in 2005 in a landmark ruling, Roper vs. Simmons , banning the death penalty for capital crimes committed by those under 18. But prosecutors say there is no national consensus against executing those who were between 18 and 21 when they committed murders. Of the 29 states that allow...