Since 1976, when Kentucky reinstated the death penalty, fifty of the seventy-eight people sentenced to death have had their death sentence or conviction overturned due to misconduct or serious errors that occurred during their trial. This represents an unacceptable error rate of more than sixty percent. Nationwide, one hundred and forty people have been released from death rows due to evidence of their wrongful conviction.
— Excerpt from a news release from Kentucky’s Commission on Human Rights, which is calling for executions to be outlawed in the Commonwealth.
