2026 Regular Session - Day 56 - Comments on SB 251 | Rep. Nancy Tate

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the opportunity to speak. And I'm quite confident that this bill is going to pass, otherwise it wouldn't be called before us today. But I'm deeply saddened that we're doing this. You know, we've had the opportunity to continue to be the most pro-life state, one of the most pro-life states in the Commonwealth, in the nation. One of the most pro-life states in the nation. And yet here we are doing a pro-death bill. And this pains me tremendously. You can't be surprised that I'm standing up to speak as the Pro-Life Caucus Chair for the House. And then obviously as a previous board member for Kentucky Right to Life, where we call for the protection of life from conception to natural death. There's nothing about the death penalty that screams natural death. It's absolutely us as people who have declared our willingness to stand up for life. It's people that have declared our willingness to stand up for life standing up here, basically standing up here on the House floor and saying we're for the death penalty. You know, as the lady from Jefferson said, there have been hundreds of people that have been exonerated, and probably the thousands of people that need to be exonerated in other states for wrongfully being placed on death row. When we all know that we are humans and that we're subject to making mistakes as humans, there's falsification and misrepresentation of eyewitness testimony. It happens every single day because we as humans are capable of making mistakes. Mr. Speaker, again, I'm going to say that I am very disappointed. We had the opportunity to pass some great pro-life legislation this year, and yet we chose not to do that. But we're standing here on one of the last days of session before the veto override opportunity, declaring our support for a pro-death. Appreciate the opportunity to speak. Thank you.