(WKYT) – Attorney General Russell Coleman filed a lawsuit July 7 requesting a judge to dismiss a former civil suit that paused executions in Kentucky.
The lawsuit comes after a 20 year pause on executions in Kentucky. The pause came from a civil case filed by Ralph Baze, who was sentenced to death for a 1992 murder of a sheriff and a deputy.
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Baze’s civil suit, which was filed in 2006, questions the constitutionality of the death penalty, according to the Lexington Herald-Leader.
Coleman says there are at least 12 death row inmates that could be legally executed if the 2006 case was dismissed. Many of the cases go back decades.
“These gruesome criminals deserve the lawful sentences they received from Kentucky juries,” Coleman says.
The lawsuit filed by Coleman says the motion to consider the dismissal of the civil suit has been under submission for 99 days after the court heard it March 30. It goes on to say, “Kentucky law requires circuit courts ‘when at all possible’ to ‘issue a written judgement or order in all civil actions… within ninety (90) days from the date the action was taken under submission.”
The lawsuit reminds the judge that the AG’s office can bypass him and go to higher courts if a ruling is not made. The AG’s office says they believe it is important to first ask the court for a status update on the ruling’s timing.
During a hearing July 15, the judge says he expects to issue a ruling “relatively soon”, according to the Herald-Leader.