Kentucky court won’t hear arguments in death case

December 3, 2014

36Pab,

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — The Kentucky Supreme Court has declined to hear oral arguments in the appeal of an inmate condemned to death for a 1997 slaying in Floyd County.

The justices did not give a reason for turning down arguments in the case of 43-year-old Samuel Steven Fields, but they have not issued a final ruling in the case.

Fields has twice been sentenced to death for the Aug. 19, 1993, slaying of 84-year-old Bess Horton during a break-in at her rural home. Horton was stabbed to death and her throat slashed. Fields was arrested at the scene.

A judge handed down the initial death sentence on April 29, 1997, but the decision was overturned. Fields was resentenced to death on Jan. 8, 2004, after his case was moved to Rowan County.