FRANKFORT, KY – Attorney General Daniel Cameron on Friday June 11, 2021 filed a lawsuit in Laurel Circuit Court on behalf of Kentucky crime victims. The lawsuit, filed jointly with Commonwealth’s Attorney Jackie Steele, seeks to invalidate a Parole Board directive that limits the Board’s ability to order a prisoner to serve out a life sentence at an initial parole eligibility hearing. The directive grants a new parole hearing to more than 40 Kentucky prisoners whom the Board previously ordered to serve out their life sentences for charges including murder, rape, and kidnapping.
“The crime victims and their families affected by this directive have already gone through the excruciating process of one Parole Board hearing, and they were given assurance by the Board that those responsible for carrying out heinous and violent crimes would spend the rest of their lives in prison without the possibility of parole,” said Attorney General Cameron. “This new directive is a startling reversal by the Board that not only disregards the rights of crime victims, but it fails to follow the law. If the directive is allowed to stand, Kentucky families will be forced to relive these terrible crimes, and a dangerous precedent will be established for how the Parole Board can issue directives and treat crime victims.”
The lawsuit argues the Parole Board does not have the legal authority to issue the April 1, 2021 directive and states that even if the Board did have such authority, it failed to act through a the administrative regulation process set forth by Kentucky law. This process requires the regulation to be reviewed by legislators and undergo a public comment period. In contrast, the lawsuit notes that “the Board issued its directive covertly without notifying Commonwealth’s Attorneys or the public, including the crime victims.”
“The Parole Board’s action to adopt this directive without notifying the victims or prosecutors involved in these cases is unacceptable,” said Jackie Steele, Commonwealth’s Attorney for the 27th Judicial Circuit. “Commonwealth’s Attorneys throughout Kentucky prosecuted the violent offenders involved here, and judges and juries throughout the state saw fit to impose life sentences. The Parole Board reviewed these cases, agreed to the need for a life sentence, and told the victims that these individuals would spend the rest of their lives in prison. To reverse course now is unconscionable.”
Mr. Steele’s office and the Attorney General’s Office of Special Prosecutions prosecuted some of the prisoners whom the Board now seeks to grant another parole eligibility hearing. Following the Parole Board’s announcement, the Kentucky Commonwealth’s Attorneys Association issued a statement raising significant concerns with the directive.
The approximately 45 prisoners currently serving life sentences who are now eligible for a new parole hearing include a man responsible for the murder and kidnapping of two Trinity High School students, a woman responsible for murdering her 10 year-old step son, a man who killed two teens on their first date, and a man responsible for kidnapping, sexually assaulting, and killing a college student at Alice Lloyd College, among others.
The lawsuit seeks a restraining order and a preliminary and permanent injunction against the directive. If the directive is allowed to stand, some prisoners who had been previously ordered to serve out their life sentences are scheduled to receive another parole eligibility hearing as early as July of this year. Commonwealth’s Attorney David Dalton has filed a similar lawsuit in Pulaski County.
To view a copy of the complaint, click here.
