The Kentucky State Penitentiary on Lake Barkley near Eddyville houses 26 inmates on Kentucky’s death row. (Kentucky Department of Corrections)
Across the country, few people have been on death row longer than Karu Gene White.
Karu Gene White (Kentucky Department of Corrections)
White was 20 years old when he was convicted of taking part in the brutal murders of three elderly Breathitt County shopkeepers in February 1979. The following year, he was sentenced to death by execution.
Today, nearly 44 years later, White is still languishing on death row at the Kentucky State Penitentiary in Lyon County — awaiting an execution that may never come. And he’s not the only one.
Long delays in resolving capital-punishment cases are a persistent national problem. But in Kentucky, the time lapse is extraordinarily severe. Although Kentucky has fewer death-row inmates than most other states, inmates here have spent an average of 26 years on death row — the longest of any state in the country, according to a report issued last November by the U.S. Department of Justice.