FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — A Kentucky judge is expressing concern about the state’s refusal to consider using one drug instead of three to execute condemned inmates.
Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd said Friday during a hearing in Frankfort that he may order Kentucky corrections officials to explain why the state is sticking with three drugs when the law allows for either method.
Friday’s hearing came in a challenge brought by two death row inmates who say Ohio’s use of a single drug to execute eight inmates since December shows there’s a safer way to carry out executions.
The hearing sought to reopen the landmark case brought by Kentucky death row inmate Ralph Baze, who challenged lethal injection as cruel and unusual punishment. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld Kentucky’s use of the three-drug protocol in 2008.
