Appeals court affirms death sentence for convicted murderer David Lee Sanders

FRANKFORT  – Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman announced Thursday that the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the capital sentence of a death row inmate convicted nearly 40 years ago for a double homicide at a Richmond store.

On death row since 1987, David Lee Sanders, now 65 years old, has lost repeated appeals in state and federal courts. His most recent appeal was rejected Tuesday by a 2-1 Sixth Circuit panel. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit is one step below the U.S. Supreme Court.

In 1987, Sanders, by his own admission, shot two men at the Boone Variety Store in Madison County.

He walked into the store and purchased orange juice and candy, used the store’s pay phone and left. Moments later, armed with a gun he had retrieved from his car, he returned to the store. Sanders approached the store’s counter where the owner was standing with his back toward him. Sanders shot him in the back of the head. When another customer entered the store, Sanders shot that man, too. He took money from both men and then left. 

A customer walking in a short time later described a “horrific scene.” Behind the counter, Jim Brandenburg lay slumped over. Near the door, Wayne Hatch was face down, gurgling in a pool of his blood.

“Decades after a judge and jury sentenced this criminal to death, he continues to do all he can to delay his sentence. While these appeals may stall that sentence, they don’t erase the verdict and we are grateful for a ruling that clears the way for long-overdue justice,” Coleman said.

Coleman also notes that in March 2024, his office filed a motion with Franklin Circuit Court to end a nearly 15-year ban on the lawful imposition of the death penalty in Kentucky. The filing followed the publication of amended regulations from Gov. Andy Beshear’s Administration that brought the state into full compliance with the court’s 2010 ruling. 

The Kentucky Supreme Court is currently considering the Attorney General’s argument that Gov. Beshear is fully empowered to sign a death warrant for Ralph Baze, who killed two law enforcement officers in 1992, and restart executions in the state.