Executions have been on hold in the commonwealth since 2010.
But state Sen. Brandon Smith and Attorney General Russell Coleman maintain Beshear has the power to commit to signing the warrant in the case of Ralph Baze, who was found guilty of murdering a sheriff and deputy and sentenced to death in 1994.
Beshear has said the circuit court decision that put executions on indefinite pause requires a new regulation that's being drafted.
"One of its holdings was we did not have a regulation that would be necessary before signing any death warrant, so that regulation is going through the process right now," the governor said. "It is filed, it is in the current schedule, and that's the step that had to be taken first under that order. And that's the step that's being taken."
Yet Smith says nothing is stopping Beshear from publicly committing to sign the warrant in the Baze case if it hits his desk. Coleman also maintains there is no legal barrier preventing the governor from doing so.
Currently, 24 individuals are on death row in Kentucky. Should this execution move forward, it would be the state's first in close to two decades.
The Lexington Herald-Leader reports Smith says he is willing to take the issue all the way to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi.