Case Title: Ex parte Joshua Kilgro.

Citation: 

Docket Number: 1150533

State: alabama

Court: Alabama Supreme Court

Date: 2016-09-02T00:00:00Z

Document:
REL:09/02/2016
Notice: This opinion is subject to formal revision before publication in the advance
sheets of Southern Reporter.  Readers are requested to notify the Reporter of Decisions,
Alabama Appellate Courts, 300 Dexter Avenue, Montgomery, Alabama 36104-3741 ((334) 229-
0649), of any typographical or other errors, in order that corrections may be made before
the opinion is printed in Southern Reporter.
SUPREME COURT OF ALABAMA
SPECIAL TERM, 2016
____________________
1150533
____________________
Ex parte Joshua Kilgro
PETITION FOR WRIT OF CERTIORARI
TO THE COURT OF CRIMINAL APPEALS
(In re: Joshua Kilgro
v.
State of Alabama)
(DeKalb Circuit Court, CC-13-44; DC-11-50211;
Court of Criminal Appeals, CR-14-1194)
BOLIN, Justice.
WRIT QUASHED.  NO OPINION.
1150533
Stuart, Shaw, Main, Wise, and Bryan, JJ., concur.
Parker and Murdock, JJ., dissent.
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1150533
MURDOCK, Justice (dissenting).
Following the conviction of the defendant, Joshua Kilgro,
in this criminal case the circuit court took up the issue of
Kilgro's sentence in two separate hearings, one held on
August 4, 2014, and one held on February 19, 2015.  Kilgro
contends that an order entered on February 25, 2015,
constituted the entry by the circuit court of his sentence and
that, therefore, Kilgro's appeal of his conviction and
sentence following the entry of that order was timely.   The
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Court of Criminal Appeals dismissed Kilgro's appeal as
untimely, however, based on its conclusion that the circuit
court pronounced sentence at the August 4 hearing.  Kilgro v.
State (No. CR-14-1194, Dec. 11, 2015), ___ So. 3d ___ (Ala.
Crim. App. 2015) (table). 
The entry of a sentence in a criminal case does not occur
unless and until the circuit court makes a decision on both
the durational and the dispositional aspects of the sentence. 
I see no basis for concluding that the application of this
fundamental requirement would vary depending on whether a
Both the State and Kilgro agreed that the circuit court
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could enter a sentencing order after listening to a recording
following the February 19 hearing.
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1150533
defendant is sentenced within or outside a sentencing-
guideline scheme.  To the extent the Court of Criminal
Appeals' opinion in Hyde v. State, 185 So. 3d 501 (Ala. Crim.
App. 2015), contains language suggesting otherwise, I believe
that suggestion to be inadvertent and, in any event,
erroneous.  I therefore disagree with the decision of the
Court of Criminal Appeals to dismiss Kilgro's appeal as
untimely based, ultimately, on this problematic language in
Hyde.
Even aside from, but especially in light of, the
foregoing, and based on my review of the statements made by
the circuit court at the August 4 hearing and in its February
25 order, I conclude that the circuit court did not intend to,
and did not, sentence Kilgro until it entered the February 25
order. Accordingly, I respectfully dissent from the decision
to quash the writ in this case.
Parker, J., concurs.
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