Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting (https://kycir.org/category/criminal-justice/page/2/)
The governor has so far commuted 1,154 sentences. That’s more than many other states, but it’s still a small portion of the 24,000 individuals serving state sentences in Kentucky — and only 16 came from Green River Correctional Complex, where 40% of inmates have caught coronavirus.
If you or someone you know is in a dangerous situation, or you just want to talk, the National Domestic Violence Hotline is 1-800-799-7233. Find a local shelter and a 24/7 crisis line at KCADV.org.
The cuts reflect a 28 percent reduction in the state’s county jail population.
The day before the deal was offered to Patrick Card, prosecutors also indicted his wife, mother and father on trafficking and complicity charges.
A bill that would penalize law enforcement agencies that fail to report how much cash and property they seize through asset forfeiture is moving through the state legislature.
Amid growing scrutiny of Kentucky law enforcement’s use of asset forfeiture, more than twice as many agencies disclosed last year how much cash and property they seized than they did two years prior.
Louisville’s public nuisance ordinance is intended to provide a way to bust up drug houses and crime dens. But police and code enforcement officials have been increasingly focused on residential locations where crimes are reported — regardless of whether the victim or the offender lives there.
KyCIR’s investigation found rape cases in Louisville are sometimes rejected by a prosecutor and “cleared by exception” before much investigating.
A jury in Hardin County this week convicted a man of two counts of murder and recommended he serve life in prison for his role in a crash last year that killed two teenagers. Shawn Welsh was being chased by three police agencies in October 2018 when he sped a stolen Chevrolet pick-up truck through a red light and collided with a Honda Accord being driven by Jacob Barber. Barber, 18, and Katarina Peeters, 17, were killed in the crash. Two other teenage passengers in the car were seriously injured, but survived. “We got justice for our kids,” said Barber’s mother, Sharon Combs, after the verdict.
People who can’t afford to pay expungement fees might be prevented from clearing their criminal record under a recent Kentucky court ruling.