Overview
- Attorney General Russell Coleman said he asked Gov. Andy Beshear to sign a death warrant for Ralph Baze, convicted of killing a Powell County sheriff and deputy in 1992.
- Beshear’s office cites a 2010 Franklin Circuit Court injunction that, according to court orders, forbids executions until a final judgment on Kentucky’s execution regulations.
- The Department of Corrections filed amended execution rules in July 2025, and officials are reviewing public comments with responses due Nov. 15.
- Corrections officials say Kentucky has no lethal-injection drugs, and drugmakers have refused to supply them since 2018.
- Coleman argues the pending rule addresses intellectual-disability claims that do not apply to Baze, while Sen. Brandon Smith and others have urged Beshear to authorize an execution; Kentucky has not carried out an execution since 2008.