Attorneys in a potential death penalty case are arguing that if their client is convicted, jurors should hear how their client would die.
Attorneys Jon Heck and Ryan Vantrease say they think a jury would spare their client, Ellen Crawley, if they understand the uncertainty around Kentucky executions, which they have described as an “unconstitutional and broken” system. They want to tell jurors in Jefferson County that the drugs used for lethal injection could cause Crawley to writhe and gasp similar to reactions by two men executed in the U.S. this year.
The request is the first of its kind in Kentucky.
Crawley is charged with killing her grandmother.