Lawmakers to consider limiting pardon power of governors

Prevent any more hiding in the darkness of the last minutes of an administration

                                    capitol floor

FRANKFORT, Ky. (KT) – A proposed constitutional amendment to limit the powers of Kentucky’s governor to issue pardons was approved by a Senate committee on Wednesday.

SB 149, sponsored by Sen. Christian McDaniel, R-Taylor Mill, would prevent issuing pardons from 30 days before a gubernatorial election to five weeks afterwards, or in other words, Inauguration Day.

During his testimony, McDaniel told the panel that he and other lawmakers were inundated with emails from Kentuckians who were outraged by the hundreds of pardons issued by Republican former Gov. Matt Bevin during his final days in office.

McDaniel also read some of the headlines from that time, which included, “Notorious northern Kentucky murderer could soon walk free, after commutation of his death sentence,” and “Five convicted of murder among those pardoned.”

McDaniel said one person is allowed to overturn the entire judicial process that includes the actions of police, prosecutors and the entire court system, even overturn the state Supreme Court. 

“This amendment would not do away with the power of pardons, it simply restricts that power during the period 30 days prior to an election, and then between a gubernatorial election and the swearing in.  That way, if a governor believes in a pardon strongly enough, he or she can stand in front of the voters, or have their parties stand in front of the voters, to decide their opinions of those actions.”

McDaniel stated this will prevent any more hiding in the darkness of the last minutes of an administration. “There will be no more allowing the rich and the powerful to influence the scales of justice without the recourse of the citizens of the commonwealth.”

The measure passed on an 8-2 vote and heads to the Senate floor.

Gov. Andy Beshear, a Democrat, offered his thoughts on the proposed constitutional amendment when asked about it at a press conference, saying those legislators are in a very different position then when they were supporting Gov. Bevin in the last election. 

“I believe it’s something that we can talk about,” Beshear said.  “I do worry about making major changes based on one governor using the power in a very terrible way. The worst pardons that we have seen I think in the history of the Commonwealth of Kentucky to people who committed heinous crimes, based on really faulty information if not conspiracy theories. I think the solution is to elect people who would never, ever do something like that.”

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