Judge issues stays for 2 executions
PENDING APPEAL OF LETHAL INJECTION CASE

By Beth Musgrave; Herald-Leader
July 13, 2005

It is unlikely that an execution in Kentucky will happen anytime soon.

Franklin Circuit Judge Roger Crittenden yesterday issued stays for the executions of Thomas Clyde Bowling Jr. and Ralph Baze, both convicted double-murders, until an appeal of a legal challenge to the state's lethal injection method is initiated.

Baze and Bowling sued the state in August, saying the state's lethal injection procedures violated a prisoner's Eighth Amendment right not to be subjected to cruel and unusual punishment.

The Death Row inmates argued that the state's three-drug cocktail used in lethal injection might not be adequate and an inmate might still feel pain.

But on Friday, Crittenden upheld the state's lethal injection procedures, saying that the evidence did not show that lethal injection was inhumane or cruel.

Attorneys for Bowling and Baze filed a notice of appeal with the state Supreme Court on Friday. They also filed a motion with Crittenden, asking that he issue a stay until the state Supreme Court takes up the appeal.

Ted Shouse of the Department of Public Advocacy argued that Crittenden still had jurisdiction until the state Supreme Court accepted the case and could issue a stay.

But David Smith of the attorney general's office argued that a death warrant -- which the attorney general asks for and the governor issues -- has not been initiated for either man.

Smith questioned whether Crittenden and the courts had the authority to issue a stay before a death warrant was requested or signed.

Crittenden said that according to court rules and case law, he still had jurisdiction over the case.

He ordered the stay begin 60 days after the appeal is certified by the state Supreme Court.

Court clerks likely will need several days to officially certify the voluminous records in the case, attorneys for both sides said.

After the court certifies the records -- including videotapes of the four-day bench trial in April and the written record -- the 60-day period begins.

Yesterday's ruling could affect Baze more than Bowling. Bowling, who was convicted for gunning down Tina and Eddie Earley outside their Lexington drycleaning business in 1990, already has a stay in effect until mid-September.

This year, the state Supreme Court rejected Bowling's claim that he was mentally retarded and unfit for execution. But the court gave his attorneys until mid-September to file an appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court.

Bowling and Baze, who was convicted of killing Powell County Sheriff Steve Bennett and deputy Arthur Briscoe in a shootout in 1992, have other appeals pending in state and federal court.

Smith said it is difficult to say when and if the next execution in Kentucky would take place. The last person executed in Kentucky was Eddie Lee Harper in 1999.


http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/12119366.htm