Kentucky has life without parole.   A jury decides the sentence.  The Governor has the sole authority to commute a death sentence to a term of life without parole.

In 1998, Kentucky became the only state to pass a Racial Justice Act, which calls for a pretrial process for the judge to determine if race is part of a capital prosecution.

In 2002, Larry Osborne was exonerated when the Kentucky Supreme Court reversed his conviction, which was based upon hearsay testimony  in 2003, Kevin Stanford was granted clemency on the basis of his age (17) at the time of the crime.