Yes, Kentucky does have the death penalty, but no one has been executed in the state since November 2008, when Marco Allen Chapman received a lethal injection. A Franklin County Circuit Court injunction issued in 2010 has blocked all executions since, and as of early 2026 roughly 25 people remain on Kentucky’s death row while litigation over the state’s lethal injection protocol continues.
Why Executions Are on Hold
Kentucky has carried out only three executions since the U.S. Supreme Court allowed states to resume capital punishment in the 1970s. The 2010 injunction grew out of challenges to the state’s execution protocol, including the absence of a single-drug lethal injection option and inadequate procedures for screening prisoners with intellectual disabilities.
In 2019, a Franklin Circuit Court judge again found the protocol unconstitutional and extended the injunction. After the Kentucky Department of Corrections revised portions of the protocol in early 2024, Attorney General Russell Coleman petitioned the court to lift the injunction and restart executions. The trial court denied the request, and in October 2024 the Kentucky Supreme Court affirmed that denial. The injunction is still in place.
Crimes That Can Carry a Death Sentence
Only two offenses can carry the death penalty in Kentucky: murder and certain forms of kidnapping.
Murder means intentionally causing someone’s death, or engaging in conduct so reckless that it creates a grave risk of death and someone dies as a result.1Justia Law. Kentucky Code 507.020 – Murder
Kidnapping becomes a capital offense when the victim is not released alive, or is released alive but later dies from serious injuries suffered during the kidnapping, from not being released in a safe place, or from circumstances the defendant intended or knew would lead to death.2Kentucky Legislative Research Commission. Kentucky Code 509.040 – Kidnapping
A capital charge does not automatically put the death penalty on the table. Prosecutors must also prove specific aggravating factors.
What Has to Be Proven for a Death Sentence
To seek death, the prosecution has to prove at least one statutory aggravating circumstance beyond a reasonable doubt. Kentucky law lists several, including:
- A prior conviction for a capital offense or a felony involving violence.
- The killing happened during an arson, robbery, burglary, rape, or kidnapping.
- The defendant intentionally caused the death of more than one person.
- The defendant knowingly created a great risk of death to more than one person in a public place.
- The killing was committed for hire, or the defendant hired someone to commit it.
The defense can present mitigating circumstances, and these do not have to be proven beyond a reasonable doubt. Statutory examples include acting under extreme emotional disturbance, having no significant criminal history, being a minor participant or under another person’s domination, and the defendant’s age or mental capacity at the time of the offense.3Kentucky Legislative Research Commission. Kentucky Code 532.025 – Presentence Hearings, Aggravating or Mitigating Circumstances Jurors can also consider non-statutory mitigation such as childhood trauma, military service, or mental health history.
A capital case runs in two phases. The first decides guilt. If the jury convicts on a capital charge, a separate sentencing hearing follows. The jury has to be unanimous to impose death, and if even one juror refuses, the death penalty is off the table. A jury that recommends death must identify in writing which aggravating circumstances it found. If the jury does not recommend death, the judge cannot override that decision.
Who Cannot Be Executed
Three categories of defendants are excluded from execution in Kentucky no matter how serious the crime.
People Under 18 at the Time of the Crime
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2005 that executing anyone who was under 18 when the offense occurred violates the Eighth Amendment. That rule applies in Kentucky.4Justia Law. Roper v. Simmons, 543 U.S. 551 (2005)
People With a Serious Intellectual Disability
Kentucky barred the execution of people with intellectual disabilities in 1990, more than a decade before the U.S. Supreme Court imposed a nationwide ban. A person found to have a serious intellectual disability cannot be executed, though they can still be sentenced to life without parole or another authorized capital sentence.5Justia Law. Kentucky Code 532.140 – Offender With a Serious Intellectual Disability Not Subject to Execution
People With Serious Mental Illness
In April 2022, Kentucky added serious mental illness as a bar to execution. A defendant cannot be sentenced to death if, at the time of the offense, they had active symptoms and a documented history of conditions such as schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, bipolar disorder, or delusional disorder. The diagnosis cannot rest solely on repeated criminal conduct or the effects of voluntary substance use, and the protection applies to trials that began after the effective date of April 8, 2022.6Kentucky Legislative Research Commission. House Bill 269 – 2022 Regular Session7Bureau of Justice Statistics. Capital Punishment, 2022 – Status of the Death Penalty
Method of Execution
Kentucky’s method is lethal injection. The statute calls for a continuous intravenous injection of a substance or combination of substances sufficient to cause death. Prisoners sentenced before March 31, 1998, may choose electrocution instead; if they don’t affirmatively choose it at least 20 days before a scheduled execution, lethal injection applies by default.8Kentucky Legislative Research Commission. Kentucky Code 431.220 – Execution of Death Sentence
The lethal injection protocol itself is the reason the injunction remains in effect. Until the courts allow Kentucky to move forward with a protocol they accept, no execution can be scheduled.
The Governor’s Power to Grant Clemency
Kentucky’s governor has sole authority to grant clemency to someone on death row. In some states a clemency board must recommend action first, but in Kentucky the governor can commute a death sentence to life in prison or issue a full pardon without approval from any other body. That power can be used at any time, though governors rarely exercise it in capital cases.
Federal Death Penalty Cases Are Separate
Kentucky’s injunction only blocks state executions. The federal government can still seek the death penalty for federal crimes committed inside Kentucky, including treason, espionage, certain large-scale drug trafficking offenses, and specific categories of murder. Federal capital cases follow their own procedures, sentencing rules, and appeals path, and the state-level pause on executions does not affect them.