FRANKFORT, Ky. (April 7, 2026) – Attorney General Russell Coleman praised the Kentucky House of Representatives and Kentucky State Senate in passing bold legislation to help deliver justice in Kentucky. The General Assembly passed Senate Bill 251 (SB 251) sponsored by State Senator Steve West (R-Paris), which would remove bureaucratic red tape from the process to impose the death penalty in Kentucky.
Senator West’s legislation allows the Kentucky Department of Corrections (KDOC) to set execution procedures through internal policies and memorandums, making the department exempt from formal administrative regulations. This allows a more streamlined process and avoids lengthy, drawn-out hurdles. The bill passed 68-23 in the House and 27-9 in the Senate. It’s now on Governor Beshear’s desk waiting action.
Twenty-four inmates currently sit on Kentucky’s death row, and many have tried for decades to avoid their sentence delivered by a jury.
“Families of victims have waited far too long for their loved one’s killer to get the justice lawfully sentenced to them from Kentucky juries. Through zealous collaboration between our Office and the General Assembly we’ll make sure this justice isn’t denied.”,” said Attorney General Coleman. “Instead of continuing to hide behind legal fictions, I call on the Governor to sign this bill into law, then sign the death warrant for the killer of Powell County Sheriff Steve Bennett and Deputy Arthur Briscoe.”
“Senate Bill 251 is less about the death penalty itself and more about the rule of law,” said Senator West. “For years, Kentucky has been an outlier because court decisions forced execution protocols into the administrative regulation process, creating a revolving door of litigation and delay. This bill corrects that problem by allowing the Department of Corrections to establish those protocols through internal policy, as most other states already do.”
SB 251 also requires KDOC to publish any internal policies online.
General Coleman’s office recently argued for the dismissal of 2006 case which is at the center of a 15-year ban on executions in the Commonwealth. A dismissal would clear the way for about a dozen executions.