The ACLU of Kentucky is a founding member of the Kentucky Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. The ACLU of Kentucky works to end the use of the death penalty through legal action, advocacy, and public education.
A recent investigation conducted by a team of Kentucky legal experts showed major flaws within Kentucky’s death penalty system. Key findings in the team’s final report included: a high error rate in death penalty cases, inadequate retention of evidence, inconsistent application of death sentences, low pay for public defenders, unqualified defense attorneys, juror confusion, lack of data and inadequate protection to guard against wrongful convictions and the execution of people with severe mental illness.
A growing number of people are calling for the end of the death penalty in the Commonwealth and across the country. Six states in the last six years have abolished the death penalty, and several others have come close. Even to those who support the death penalty, it is becoming more and more apparent the death penalty they support is not the system we currently have in place.
Resources
Kentucky Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty
The ACLU of Kentucky is a founding, organizational member of the Kentucky Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. Click for news, information and blogs on the movement to abolish the death penalty in the Commonwealth.
Read our new booklet No Need to Kill featuring reflections by nine persons who lost loved ones to murder. Their stories make clear they want justice; they want violent offenders held accountable and severely punished. But they do not want them executed.
Kentucky Assessment on the Death Penalty
A two-year review by a team of Kentucky legal experts found that “serious problems persist” in state death penalty procedures. The team unanimously recommended that Kentucky temporarily suspend executions until serious issues related to fairness and accuracy in the imposition of the death penalty are addressed.
Murder Victims’ Families for Human Rights-Law Enforcement Stories
Victim-founded, victim-led, international, non-governmental organization of people who have lost family members to murder or execution and oppose the death penalty. Click to read their collection of statements from family members of murdered law enforcement that oppose the death penalty.
