Death-penalty opponents want state lawmakers to approve a bill next year ending capital punishment in Kentucky. One reason is that Kentucky adopted life without parole in 1998, Delahanty said. However, Jo Ann Phillips, executive director of Kentuckians' Voice for Crime Victims, said support for the death penalty remains strong. It's unlikely an abolition bill will pass, she said. Still, the current abolition campaign is the most comprehensive in Kentucky since lawmakers reinstated capital punishment in 1976.
Organizers have several events planned.
The campaign is promoting Faith in Action Weekend Oct. 8-10, seeking to have ministers and churches give sermons and put on programs calling for an end to executions. The campaign has also scheduled a youth rally against violence on the steps of the state Capitol Nov. 13 and is trying to line up speaking engagements around the state. On another front, state Rep. Tom Burch, chair of the interim Health and Welfare Committee, has agreed to hold a hearing Oct. 20 on the death penalty. Burch, D-Louisville, said he voted for capital punishment when Kentucky reinstated it after a national moratorium in the 1970s, but now thinks there are better ways to deal with crime. Criminal-justice matters ordinarily come before the judiciary committee, but Burch said the death penalty can also be considered a health issue.