(LEX 18) — Attorney General Russell Coleman announced on Thursday that a federal court has upheld the capital sentence for an eastern Kentucky man who was convicted of murder in 1986.
According to a release, Benny Lee Hodge was convicted by a jury in 1986 for the murder of Tammy Acker and attacking her father, Dr. Roscoe Acker, in Letcher County.
In 1985, according to a release, Hodge and an accomplice acted as FBI agents to enter Acker's residence, where they tied up the two victims and forced Acker to open his safe and strangle him until he lost consciousness. Then, according to the release, he stabbed Tammy at least 10 times with a kitchen knife.
The release states that after a three-judge panel overturned Hodge's sentence in 2024, AG Coleman asked the court to reconsider, and as a result, all the judges of the Sixth Circuit agreed to rehear the case. In a 14-4 decision, the judges rejected Hodge's arguments and upheld his capital sentence.
