August 22, 2007
Kentucky
Fletcher to sign inmate's death warrant
By Tom Loftus, The Courier-Journal
FRANKFORT, Ky. -- Gov. Ernie Fletcher plans to sign a death warrant today
that will set Sept. 25 as the execution date for a Powell County man.
Ralph Baze Jr., one of 40 inmates on death row at the Kentucky State
Penitentiary at Eddyville, was convicted in the 1992 shooting deaths of
Powell County Sheriff Steve Bennett and Deputy Arthur Briscoe, who were
trying to serve him with arrest warrants on assault and stolen-property
charges.
The governor's office released a statement yesterday saying that Fletcher
will sign the death warrant.
"Justice demands a judicial process that affords the accused a fair and
impartial hearing," the statement said. "Baze received just that. Justice
likewise requires imposition of the penalty commensurate with the offense.
Here, a jury found that Baze planned and murdered a sheriff and a sheriff's
deputy. Imposition of the death penalty is therefore appropriate."
Last month the U.S. Supreme Court rejected Baze's final appeal. And last
week Attorney General Greg Stumbo asked Fletcher to sign a death warrant for
Baze.
State Public Advocate Ernie Lewis released a statement that said the
Department of Public Advocacy, which represents Baze, hopes the governor
will spare his life by granting him clemency.
"There are significant reasons why clemency should be granted in this case,"
Lewis said. "Ralph Baze was suffering from extreme emotional disturbance,
believing that Deputy Briscoe showed up at his residence to arrest him
falsely and at the behest of the other family members who Ralph Baze
believed were harassing him. Judge Guy Cole of the 6th Circuit (Court of
Appeals) found these circumstances so compelling as to register a dissent in
Baze's case."
Baze was sentenced to death before the 1998 legislature passed a law
establishing lethal injection -- rather than electrocution -- as the state's
method of execution.
That law provides that anyone who had already been sentenced to death would
have the choice of either method, said David Fleenor, general counsel for
the governor's office.
Kentucky has executed two men, the last one in 1999, since reinstating the
death penalty in 1976.
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Source : Courier-Journal
http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbc ... 008/NEWS01
