Senate panel advances proposal to limit pardon powers
Proposal now heads to GOP-dominated full Senate
FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Kentucky lawmakers advanced a proposal Wednesday to limit a governor’s pardon powers, reflecting the anger still burning over former Gov. Matt Bevin’s flurry of last-minute pardons in late 2019.
The proposed constitutional change would prevent the former Republican governor’s successors from doing the same thing in their final days in office. The measure won approval from a Senate committee, sending the proposal to the GOP-dominated full Senate.
The proposal would amend the state’s Constitution to strip a governor of pardon powers for the month leading up to a gubernatorial election and for the time between the election and inauguration. If the bill clears the legislature, it would go on this year’s ballot for voters to decide the issue.
Republican Sen. Chris McDaniel, the proposal’s sponsor, read headlines about Bevin’s pardon spree in making the case again Wednesday for the constitutional change.
“This amendment will prevent any more hiding in the darkness of the last minutes of an administration,” he said. “There will be no more allowing the rich and the powerful to influence the scales of justice without the recourse of the voters … of the commonwealth.”
Bevin issued hundreds of pardons between his electoral defeat and his final day in office. Several stirred outrage from victims or their families, prosecutors and lawmakers.
One of those Bevin pardoned was Patrick Baker, whose family had political connections to Bevin, including hosting a fundraiser for the one-term governor. Baker, pardoned for a 2014 drug robbery killing, was convicted for the same slaying last year in federal court.
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