FRANKFORT, Ky. (LEX News) — The Kentucky Supreme Court has denied Attorney General Russell Coleman's request to force a Franklin County judge to clarify whether a long-standing court injunction prevents Gov. Andy Beshear from signing a death warrant for death row inmate Ralph Baze. In a 5-1 decision issued Thursday, the court ruled the Commonwealth failed to meet the legal standard required for an extraordinary writ of mandamus.
The ruling does not determine whether Baze can be executed. Instead, the court found that the dispute centers on an ongoing lawsuit challenging Kentucky's execution procedures and that courts cannot issue advisory opinions to resolve disagreements between the attorney general and the governor.
"The Attorney General's disagreement with the Governor over interpretation of the 2010 injunction is a non-justiciable claim," Justice Kelly Thompson Keller wrote for the majority. "Any order by the circuit court or this Court instructing the Governor as to what he may do regarding issuance of a death warrant would constitute an advisory opinion."
The decision leaves in place a temporary injunction first issued in 2010 by Phillip Shepherd, a Franklin Circuit Court judge, while litigation over Kentucky's execution procedures continues. The court noted that the lawsuit, which began in 2006, appears to be nearing final resolution after years of challenges and revisions to the state's lethal injection regulations.
Kentucky has not carried out an execution since 2008. The underlying lawsuit was filed by death row inmates who argued the state's execution protocols were not properly adopted under Kentucky administrative law. After the Kentucky Department of Corrections adopted new regulations in 2010, Judge Shepherd issued a temporary injunction blocking their implementation and preventing executions while the legal challenges were litigated. The Kentucky Supreme Court previously upheld that injunction in 2011
The latest dispute arose after Coleman urged Beshear to sign a death warrant for Baze, who the attorney general's office identified as having exhausted his appeals and post-conviction remedies. Beshear declined, citing ongoing litigation, questions about execution drugs and his interpretation that the injunction still bars executions.
