Newly-elected Attorney General Daniel Cameron has filed a formal request with the FBI to investigate some of the pardons issued by former Governor Matt Bevin prior to him leaving office.
According to media reports, Senate Minority Leader Morgan McGarvey and state Representative Chris Harris asked Cameron to look into the pardons. Cameron confirmed earlier this week that he had made a request with the FBI to investigate the matter after speaking with multiple law enforcement agencies.
Cameron stated in a letter to lawmakers, Kentucky’s Constitution gives the governor the power to pardon a person convicted of a crime, but he believes the pardon power should be used sparingly and only after great deliberation with due concern for public safety.
Prior to leaving office, Bevin pardoned around 160 people, including individuals charged with murder and rape.
Bevin also pardoned former Christian County Sheriff’s deputy and deputy jailer, Brandon Lee Hawkins, who was convicted in 2015 of rape and other offenses. He also commuted the sentence of Dayton Jones of Hopkinsville, who admitted to his role in a brutal sexual assault of a 15-year old male at a party at a residence on Lafayette Road in 2014.
