FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — A Kentucky lawmaker is hoping his quest to limit the pardon powers of governors in his state has received a jolt of momentum from public attention over the flurry of pardons and commuted sentences granted by former President Joe Biden before leaving office.
“Even though this obviously won’t affect anything federally, it really brings to light what is the nature of the power,†Republican state Sen. Chris McDaniel said Friday.
His proposal would amend Kentucky's constitution to restrict the power of governors to issue pardons and commutations near the end of their terms. That authority would be suspended during the 60 days before a gubernatorial election and the time between the election and inauguration.
The proposed constitutional change easily cleared the Kentucky Senate on Friday with bipartisan support. It now goes to the House, where similar measures died in recent years. Republicans have supermajorities in both legislative chambers. If it wins House passage, the proposal would be placed on the 2026 general election ballot for statewide voters to decide the matter.
The measure is a response to what happened at the end of the last Republican governor's term in the Bluegrass State. During his final weeks in office, then-Gov. Matt Bevin issued more than 600 pardons and commutations — several of them stirring outrage from victims or their families, prosecutors and lawmakers. Bevin lost his 2019 reelection bid to Democrat Andy Beshear, who is now in his second term.
Bevin's pardons dominated headlines for months in Kentucky. The Courier Journal in Louisville earned a Pulitzer Prize for its coverage of Bevin’s actions. And fallout from the pardons continues. Last August, a man pardoned by Bevin was charged with attacking a woman with a knife, according to media reports.
In another high-profile case, a man pardoned by Bevin for a drug-related homicide conviction in state court was later for the same death. The man's family had political connections to Bevin, having hosted a fundraiser for the Republican.
In a new twist, McDaniel is trying to stoke support for his measure by pointing to Biden's actions.
Before leaving office, the Democratic president of 37 federal death row inmates to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. The inmates include people convicted in the slayings of police and military officers. Supporters of Republican Donald Trump criticized the move. Biden also commuted several thousand sentences for people convicted of nonviolent drug offenses and people who were released from prison and placed on home confinement during the coronavirus pandemic.
Biden pardoned his son Hunter, not just for his convictions on federal gun and tax violations but for any potential federal offense committed over an 11-year period, out of fear that Trump allies would seek to prosecute his son for other offenses.
In a recent new release touting his bill, McDaniel berated Biden for a “disgraceful abuse of executive power.†The release included links to news article about Biden's pardons for relatives and his action to commute the sentence of Indigenous activist Leonard Peltier. It allowed Peltier to transition to home confinement nearly half a century after he was imprisoned for the killings of two FBI agents.
“Kentucky cannot address the abuse of presidential powers, but we can take meaningful steps to strengthen trust in our executive branch powers," McDaniel said.
Unmentioned in the release was Trump's actions. Just before midnight on the final night of his first term, Trump signed a flurry of pardons and commutations. On his return to the White House this year, Trump who violently stormed the Capitol four years ago.
During his remarks on the Senate floor Friday, McDaniel said the pardon powers in Kentucky allow a governor to “override the judgment†of the entire judicial system. McDaniel said his measure would make governors more accountable by suspending that power before and after an election.
“There will be no more hiding in the darkness of the last minutes of an administration," McDaniel said. "There will be no more allowing the rich and powerful to influence the scales of justice without recourse from the citizens of the commonwealth.â€
