LEXINGTON, Ky. — The Kentucky Supreme Court has dealt another blow to Attorney General Russell Coleman’s efforts to resume executions in Kentucky.

The high court on Thursday denied a petition submitted by Coleman’s office that, if accepted, would have been a step forward in resuming the death penalty. Coleman wanted the Supreme Court to make an order to a lower court in Franklin County, requiring it to clarify a previous order about whether Gov. Andy Beshear could resume executions in the state by signing a death warrant for Ralph Baze.

Baze, 55, was convicted of killing a sheriff and a deputy in Powell County in 1992. A jury sentenced him to death two years later. He challenged his death sentence in court by filing a lawsuit that questioned the legality of several parts of Kentucky’s death penalty process, including defendants’ ability to meet with their lawyers, how quickly an IV can be inserted for execution and whether media can be present for executions.

Baze’s case is a key part of Kentucky’s pause on executions.

Coleman asked that the lawsuit be dismissed in its entirety, saying the case had dragged on far too long, and that many of the issues outlined decades ago were resolved to the point that the governor could sign a death warrant — at least for Baze.

Similar to other recent rulings from the Supreme Court, the justices said Coleman’s request in this case would go against his end goal of resuming executions and enacting the punishment faster, saying that granting his petition would not be “efficient nor logical” as the courts still try to sort out questions in Baze’s case. This is the second ruling by the Supreme Court in a month that has rejected Coleman’s arguments on the death penalty.

“Even if the Governor issued a death warrant for Baze right now, the underlying constitutional issues regarding implementation of the death penalty remain unresolved,” wrote Justice Michelle Keller. “This would result in Baze making the same claims he is making now, but on the eve of execution, and the parties would end up at the same place they are right now in the litigation. This is neither efficient nor logical.”

The majority of justices said Coleman did not prove this irreparable harm to the public and that they would not interfere on advisory opinions for the governor.

Justice Kelly Thompson was the sole dissenting vote in favor of Coleman’s request.

Coleman’s office was not immediately available for comment. He has advocated to reinstate the death penalty since he took office in 2024. He says that doing so would enforce justice recommended by juries and bring closure to victims’ families.

Kentucky’s decades-long death penalty lawsuit

Baze was sentenced to death in 1994, two years after the killings. The long fight over the legality of Baze’s execution began in 2007, when the U.S. Supreme Court halted capital punishment nationwide as it considered the legality of lethal injection.

The Supreme Court eventually allowed executions to resume — and they did in some states, including Kentucky. But not for Baze, because his civil lawsuit was ongoing.

In 2010, Franklin Circuit Court Judge Phillip Shepherd halted executions in the commonwealth as part of a ruling on Baze’s case at the state level. In halting executions, Shepherd raised concern about the state’s lack of an automatic stay for intellectually disabled death row inmates, and changes to lethal injection protocols.

Since that time, the case has taken on additional forms as the Kentucky Department of Corrections has tried to work to address the issues outlined by Shepherd more than a decade ago.

In August, Shepherd ruled to dismiss some of the claims in the Baze case, but allowed several to continue, saying if he dismissed the litigation altogether, the same claims could arise again. If Shepherd did dismiss the decades-old claims, it would have cleared the way for Coleman’s effort to reinstate the death penalty.

But David Barron, the attorney representing 15 death-sentenced plaintiffs in the lawsuit, said the continuance of certain claims allows the state to address risks in Kentucky’s protocols that could lead to botched lethal injections.

“The court’s ruling removes the last impediment to moving forward with discovery and then resolving the remaining claims through a likely bench trial,” Barron said in a statement to the Herald-Leader. “We look forward to establishing Kentucky’s execution protocol does not comport with constitutional requirements and to changes being made so that everyone can be assured that any future execution is carried out constitutionally.”

The death penalty in Kentucky

Just months after he took office in 2024, Coleman filed a motion asking the Franklin County Circuit Court to reverse its prior decision and end Kentucky’s ban on capital punishment.

Coleman argued that amended regulations were published by the Kentucky Department of Corrections the same year he took office that ensured the state is in full compliance with Shepherd’s 2010 ruling, and the judge’s earlier concerns are now moot.

Last year, Coleman sent two letters to Beshear requesting he sign a death warrant for Baze and allow an execution date to be set.

But Beshear claimed he could not sign a death warrant. He said the state lacked access to the drugs necessary to carry out a lethal injection and also needed further clarification on Department of Corrections protocols.

In June, the attorney general joined a 16-state coalition in a letter that asked the federal government to streamline the death penalty process.

Thompson’s dissent

Thompson echoed Coleman’s beliefs that the litigation had gone on long enough, and that he “vehemently disagreed” with the majority’s opinion.

“This litigation has lasted far too long, and the hope for an ultimate resolution to it at some indefinite time after discovery has been completed in 2027 does not excuse the circuit court’s failure to make a ruling on whether this temporary injunction is still needed as to Baze,” Thompson said in his opinion. “Once such a ruling is made, the parties will have a mechanism to seek further review by our Court.”

Thompson said Shepherd acted “erroneously” in “refusing to review” whether the 2010 temporary injunction specifically applies to Baze’s case.

“This litigation has been extremely prolonged, and despite the majority opinion’s optimism, there is no real end to this litigation in sight,” Thompson said.

“The fact that there is a pending discovery deadline next year, in 2027, does not guarantee that this deadline will not be extended, that additional amendments will not be allowed, and that the matter will ultimately be resolved and reviewable on appeal before these death penalty inmates all pass away from natural causes while incarcerated, as has occurred with some of the original named plaintiffs.”

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