ACLU of Kentucky

FRANKFORT, Ky. — Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd on Friday blocked the scheduled execution next Thursday of death row inmate Gregory Wilson.

Shepherd granted a motion by Wilson's attorneys for a delay until he rules on the legality of the Kentucky Department of Corrections' regulations for carrying out an execution by lethal injection.

Wilson and three other death row inmates brought that challenge.

Shepherd found that they raised “at least two substantial questions of law regarding the validity of the administrative regulations.”

One question, he said, concerns the lack of adequate safeguards in the regulations to prevent the execution of an insane or mentally retarded person.

Such an execution would violate both state law and the 8th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, Shepherd ruled.

“This court grants Wilson's motion for injunctive relief and a stay of any implementation of the death warrant signed in his case by the governor,” Shepherd wrote.

He ruled that the order would remain in effect until he decides on the challenge to the legality of the execution regulations “or until further orders of the court.”

Shepherd said he had another concern over the fact that the regulations provide for lethal injection only by a three-drug cocktail and prohibit the use of a single drug, even though state law “explicitly allows” the single-drug option.

Wilson, 53, was convicted in the September 1988 abduction, rape, robbery and murder of Debbie Pooley, 36, an assistant manager of a Newport restaurant.

A co-defendant in the case, Brenda Humphrey, is serving a life sentence.

Last month Gov. Steve Beshear signed a warrant setting Wilson's execution for Sept. 16 at the Kentucky State Penitentiary.

Reporter Tom Loftus can be reached at (502) 875-5136.