FRANKFORT, Ky.– A Republican lawmaker on Wednesday resumed his effort to limit the pardon powers of a Kentucky governor, following a wave of pardons granted by the state’s last GOP governor that continues to spark outrage.
The proposed constitutional amendment quickly received approval from the Senate Committee on State and Local Government to advance to the full Senate. If the measure receives approval there, it will go to the House of Representatives. Both chambers have a Republican supermajority.
State Sen. Chris McDaniel said he wants to ensure what happened at the end of former Gov. Matt Bevin’s term will never happen again. Bevin, who lost his re-election bid, issued hundreds of pardons upon his departure in late 2019. Several sparked outrage among victims or their families, prosecutors and lawmakers.
McDaniel’s proposal — Senate Bill 126 — aims to amend the state Constitution to eliminate a governor’s pardon powers in the month before the gubernatorial election and the time between the election and the inauguration. If the proposal passes the Legislature, it will go on a statewide vote in November for voters to decide the issue.
“This is essentially a period of two months out of every four years where a governor cannot issue a pardon,” McDaniel said during his presentation to the committee on Wednesday.
During his final weeks as president, Bevin issued more than 600 pardons and commutations. The Courier Journal in Louisville earned a Pulitzer Prize for its reporting on Bevin’s actions.
One of the people Bevin pardoned was Patrick Baker, whose family had political ties to the Republican governor, including organizing a fundraiser for him. Baker was pardoned for the murder of a drug robbery in 2014, but was later convicted in federal court of the same killing. He was sentenced to 42 years in prison. A federal appeals court upheld the conviction.
On Wednesday, McDaniel spotlighted the case of Gregory Wilson, who was convicted in 1988 of raping and killing a woman. Wilson was sentenced to death, but Bevin commuted his sentence to life in prison with the possibility of parole after thirty years. The state Parole Board recently decided that Wilson must serve the remainder of his life sentence.
“He should never have been eligible for parole in the first place since he was facing the death penalty,†McDaniel said. His proposal attempts to place the same limits on governmental commutations.
McDaniel has been pushing for the same constitutional amendment since 2020, but has so far been unable to get the measure through the entire legislative session. In his final pitch Wednesday, McDaniel said his proposal would address a “deficiency” in the state constitution.
“I think it is imperative to the fundamental issues of justice in the Commonwealth that one individual is not able to short-circuit the entire justice system,” McDaniel said.