The Kentucky Senate once again approved a GOP-backed constitutional amendment that would limit pardon powers of Kentucky governors around election time.
If it makes it through the General Assembly, Senate Bill 10 would ask Kentucky voters in November to block governors from issuing pardons and sentence commutations 60 days before their election through their successor’s inauguration in December.
The Kentucky Senate voted 36-0 in favor of the measure Tuesday afternoon. One lawmaker, Senate Minority Caucus Chair Reggie Thomas (D-Lexington), passed on the vote.
Sen. Chris McDaniel (R-Ryland Heights) has filed the legislation several times before and it has cleared the Senate, but it has never gained passage in the House. The Senate State and Local Government Committee approved SB 10 last week.
The bill is a response by lawmakers to controversial pardons former Republican Gov. Matt Bevin issued after losing the 2019 election to Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear. Bevin pardoned people convicted of crimes including rape, murder and child abuse.
McDaniel said the bill would ask “the voters of the commonwealth if in the exercise of an unchecked override of justice, the person who exerts that power is responsible to then stand in front of the voters again, or force his party to stand in front of the voters again,” McDaniel said while presenting the bill.
Republican House Speaker David Osborne previously told reporters that McDaniel had “worked really hard in the interim” to get House members to back the bill this year.
“This reform has passed the Senate in multiple sessions, and I’m optimistic this is the year it reaches the ballot,” McDaniel said in a statement following the Senate’s approval. “I appreciate the encouraging words I’ve heard from House colleagues and the positive comments from Speaker Osborne. It’s time to let the people decide.”
The bill now goes to the House for its consideration.
Written by McKenna Horsley. Cross-posted from the Kentucky Lantern.
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