Kentucky Senator Chris McDaniel was sitting on his couch in 2019 when it was announced then Gov. Matt Bevin had issued over 400 pardons and commutations during his final days in office.
He first learned about it from a friend, Joe Heil, who was the manager of a restaurant called Barleycorn’s.
Heil was asking if it was true Bevin had commuted the death sentence of convicted murderer and rapist Gregory Wilson. Wilson had been convicted killing one of Heil’s waitresses, Deborah Pooley, in 1988.
Wilson had been paroled from an Ohio prison less than 30 days earlier on a charge of rape when he kidnapped Pooley. He raped her multiple times, murdered her and through her body into a field, McDaniel noted.
Before leaving office Bevin commuted Wilson’s sentence from death to life in prison. This made him eligible for parole, which he did not receive.
Thus began McDaniel’s seven-year mission to amend the Kentucky Constitution to limit a governor’s ability to pardon people during his final days in office.
The power to pardon people allows the governor for whatever reason, or no reason at all, the power to pardon people for a state level crime.
“Anyone, who is in a county jail or a state prison, is eligible to have their sentence done away with a single act of a governor. We saw – unfortunately in 2019 with Gov. Bevin – that power can be dramatically abused,” McDaniel said.
McDaniel noted the power to pardon is the only unchecked power in government, and a proposed constitutional amendment on the ballot next month for Kentucky voters would change this.
Constitutional Amendment 1 asks voters if they are in favor of limiting a governor’s ability to grant pardons or commute sentences. This would be done by prohibiting a governor from granting pardons or commuting sentences during the time period starting 60 days prior to the general election where a governor is elected.
The governor could not pardon until the winner of that governor’s race is sworn into office.
This way, the governor and his or her party, have to stand in front of an informed voting base and account for the actions they took, McDaniel said.
McDaniel took his constitutional amendment message to Corbin Tuesday morning where he spoke with a group of reporters at the Stivers Center before addressing a joint meeting of the Southern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce, the Knox County Chamber of Commerce and the Clay County Chamber of Commerce.
“I would encourage everyone here to vote yes on Amendment 1. A vote yes is to introduce this check on the power to pardon that I previously described and to have some level of accountability to a governor, who wishes to issue them,” McDaniel told the crowd.
McDaniel noted amending the constitution is not something to be taken lightly, but this is an effort to do so responsibly.
McDaniel said he thinks this amendment will pass, especially when voters look back at Bevin’s action seven years ago.
“The language is about as straight forward as it can be,” McDaniel said about the wording of the constitutional amendment.
If people just think back in history to what they saw seven years ago, McDaniel said, “There is no one, who can’t feel their skin crawl just a little bit. This should be a very easy vote for the voters of the commonwealth.”
