EKB News

Two inmates on Kentucky's death row are asking the state's high court to do something it's never done before - spare them based on claims of ineffective trial attorneys. The inmates, Hugh Marlowe and Charles Bussell, are both asking the Kentucky Supreme Court to uphold rulings by circuit judges that their lawyers inadequately defended them. Since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, the state's high court has never overturned a death sentence or capital murder conviction based on ineffective counsel. The U.S. Supreme Court's standard for such matters factors in not only whether the defense attorney put on a poor defense, but also considers if - minus the attorney's performance - there is a "reasonable probability" the result would have been different.