A state judge says he doesn't have the authority to stop lawmakers from holding a hearing on Kentucky's proposed execution method.

Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd also said Wednesday he would be inclined to allow several items from the state's now-defunct procedures to be unsealed at the hearing scheduled for Monday.

Shepherd's ruling came in response to a challenge brought by an attorney for three death row inmates who wanted parts of the state's old protocol made public and aired before lawmakers.

Kentucky is in the process of readopting its lethal injection protocol four months after the state Supreme Court ruled the state improperly enacted it's execution method.