Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman is asking the Franklin Circuit Court to dismiss a case at the center of the state's 15-year ban on executions.Coleman's team argued in court Monday that it is time to clear the way for a bout a dozen death row inmates to be executed."This case has been dragging on for 20 years," Coleman said to reporters after court."These gruesome criminals deserve the sentences that they received from Kentucky juries," Coleman added.One of the inmates is Ralph Baze, who was convicted of killing a sheriff and a deputy in 1992. Last year, Coleman asked Governor Andy Beshear to sign Baze's death warrant, but that signature did not happen."Ralph Baze committed a horrible crime and because of that there's a family that is still hurting," Beshear explained last year. "Right now, there is an injunction from Franklin Circuit Court on all capital punishment in Kentucky."Beshear said the injunction essentially forbids Kentucky from performing any more executions until a final judgment. He also said another regulation is currently going through the judicial process."As the Kentucky Supreme Court has stated, a 2010 Franklin Circuit Couty ruling "essentially forbids the Commonwealth from performing any more executions until...a final judgment in the declaratory judgement action." Despite multiple unsuccessful attempts by the Attorney General to undo the injunction, which continues to delay the case, it remains in place today," Scottie Ellis, a spokesperson for the Governor's Office, elaborated on Monday. "The Department of Corrections filed an amended regulation, as requested by the Court, and that regulation is currently in a 90-day review period with the Judiciary Committee. If no action is taken by the committee, the regulation will become effective on April 7, 2026. As of today, no hearing has been scheduled."Coleman said a dismissal of the case with the injunction would quickly clear the way for about a dozen executions."It'll pave the way for around a dozen death row inmates to finally receive their sentence and the surviving family in each case will receive the justice that they have long awaited," Coleman said.The state currently has 24 death row inmates listed. According to the Department of Corrections, they have spent an average of 27 years awaiting execution. The longest-serving death row inmate has been behind bars for 45 years.Coleman said the victims' families have been waiting for far too long."Decades and decades and decades," Coleman said. "What concerns me, the state's chief law enforcement officer, is that we know when there is not swift and certain justice, we see the rule of law eroding."Coleman said waiting this long to execute some of Kentucky's most serious offenders sends a bad message to everyone."We want to prevent the harm," Coleman said. "We want to prevent the victimization and when you have a system where there is not real punishment with the most heinous offenders, then the rule of law becomes shaky. That's the impact."The governor has also previously said the drugs used in lethal injections are difficult to obtain, presenting another problem. However, the attorney general said other states have carried out executions in the last year and a half, and he believes if they can do it, so can Kentucky. ...read more read less