The House budget committee Tuesday voted to impose a 2-year moratorium on executing death-row inmates who are mentally retarded or were juveniles when they committed murder.

The moratorium is tucked into the executive-branch budget bill as language to withhold state funding.

Opponents of capital punishment, some of whom are on the committee, have tried but failed to get the General Assembly to ban such executions outright.

The Appropriations and Revenue Committee approved the bill on the 2nd day of a special legislative session convened to pass a state budget.

For the most part, the committee nibbled around the edges of the budget plan proposed by Gov. Paul Patton. But the committee weighed in on the divisive social issue of capital punishment.

It voted to insert amendments into Mr. Patton's budget to withhold state funds for executions of any prisoner who committed murder while a minor or who was mentally retarded. The effect would be a moratorium for 2 years, which covers the period of the budget.

At the House budget committee meeting, a dozen changes were made to the budget bill yesterday, including amendments amounting to a 2-year moratorium on executions of anyone mentally retarded or who was a juvenile when committing the crime.

The amendments, sponsored by Rep. Jim Wayne, D-Louisville, would prohibit the state from spending money on such executions until the budget expires on June 30, 2004. In that time, Wayne said, the state Criminal Justice Council would study the fairness of the application of the death penalty in Kentucky and make recommendations on changes to the 2004 General Assembly.

The committee approved Wayne's amendment on juveniles by an 18-7 vote, and approved the amendment on the mentally retarded by a voice vote.

The amendments prompted general debate of the death penalty.

Rep. Bob Heleringer, R-Louisville, said executions do not "accomplish anything for the betterment of society." He said the moratorium on executions of juveniles would apply to 1 Kentucky death row inmate -- Kevin Stanford, who was 17 when he raped and murdered convenience store clerk Baerbel Poore in Louisville in 1981.

The U.S. Supreme Court used Stanford's case to uphold the execution of killers who commit their crimes at age 17.

Rep. Joni Jenkins, D-Louisville, said "emotions are still raw" in her district, where Stanford's crime occurred. But Jenkins said, "There's nothing wrong to pause, to study this for 2 years."

The fate of the amendments on executions is unclear. The House rejected such amendments last month.

Rep. Jim Wayne, D-Louisville, said the moratoriums were appropriate while a criminal-justice council conducts a study of the death penalty.

(sources: Cincinnati Enquirer & Louisville Courier-Journal)

April 24, 2002