Opinion ID: 1399654
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 25

Heading: Death Sentences Applied

Text: Epperson maintains that the death penalty as applied in Kentucky is discriminatory, arbitrary and inappropriate, and that this question should be reviewed because there is no possible strategic reason for failure to preserve it. Review is also required by KRS 532.075. We find that the death sentence as applied in Kentucky is not unconstitutionally arbitrary or discriminatory. The Sixth Circuit has rejected a similar argument in McQueen. Recent Kentucky cases reaching the same conclusion are as follows: Tamme v. Commonwealth, supra ; Mills v. Commonwealth, supra ; Stopher v. Commonwealth, 57 S.W.3d 787 (Ky.2001), cert. denied, 535 U.S. 1059, 122 S.Ct. 1921, 152 L.Ed.2d 829 (2002); Caudill v. Commonwealth, supra ; and, Thompson v. Commonwealth, 147 S.W.3d 22 (Ky.2004), cert. denied, ___ U.S. ___, 125 S.Ct. 2966, 162 L.Ed.2d 893, 73 USLW 3750 (2005). Moreover, the capital sentencing procedure in Kentucky is in conformity with the constitutional requirements set out in McCleskey v. Kemp, 481 U.S. 279, 107 S.Ct. 1756, 95 L.Ed.2d 262 (1987). It is conceded that an argument about racial discrimination with respect to capital sentencing was not the subject of a pretrial motion or any evidence prior to trial as now required by the Kentucky Racial Justice Act, KRS 532.300. The Kentucky capital sentencing process is constitutional and not arbitrary or discriminatory.