The newest member of the Kentucky Supreme Court has some strong feelings about capital punishment. Pamela Goodwine is the first Black woman to sit on the state Supreme Court and the first woman to hold a judgeship at every level in Kentucky.
In an interview with WEKU's Eastern Standard, she said that Kentucky's death penalty system is cost-prohibitive.
“At an estimated cost of $10 million per year, Kentucky has spent an estimated $400 million on capital punishment or $130 million per execution since 1976.”
Goodwine said Kentucky has conducted three executions since then. She said her views on the death penalty have evolved over the years.
“In 1980, an eye for an eye, to the current view that the death penalty can never be a justifiable punishment if the utility by which we executed the condemned is arbitrary.”
Executions in Kentucky have been put on hold since 2010.
