Opinion ID: 1577932
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Finality of Judgment

Text: In order to determine if the RCr 11.42 claim was timely, we must identify when Carneal's sentencing judgment became final. The Commonwealth argues that final judgment occurred in 1998, when the trial court sentenced Carneal to life without the possibility of parole for twenty-five years. Carneal contends final judgment occurred when he was transferred to adult custody in 2001, following the hearing held pursuant to KRS 640.030(2), commonly called the 18-year-old hearing. This Court has yet to squarely address this issue in a published opinion. In Turner v. Commonwealth, an unpublished opinion, we considered a youthful offender's untimely RCr 11.42 motion challenging the validity of his guilty plea. 2004 WL 315154 (Ky.2004). [W]e thus hold that the court's judgment of conviction [and] sentence was a final judgment for RCr 11.42 purposes notwithstanding the possibility that the trial court [could] have modified the terms of Turner's sentence at a subsequent KRS 640.030 proceeding. Id. at 2. No further analysis was offered, however. The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals recently addressed the issue in Jennings v. Morgan, 2007 WL 4292038 (2007), though in the context of a federal habeas corpus petition brought pursuant to 28 U.S.C. §§ 2254 and 2244(d)(1). Interpreting the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Burton v. Stewart, 549 U.S. 147, 127 S.Ct. 793, 166 L.Ed.2d 628 (2007), the Sixth Circuit held that Jennings' conviction and sentence as a youthful offender was not final for purposes of federal post-conviction relief until the 18-year-old hearing was held. We disagree with this application of Burton in the context of Kentucky's post-conviction statutes. In Burton , a Washington state case, it was held that the one-year grace period established by the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA) did not begin to run until Burton's conviction and sentence became final. Id. at 156, 127 S.Ct. 793. Accordingly, where the Washington Court of Appeals remanded Burton's case for re-sentencing, the AEDPA statute of limitations did not begin to run until all direct appeals of the new sentence were exhausted. We do not believe the 18-year-old hearing mandated by KRS 640.030(2) is comparable, in purpose or effect, to the re-sentencing proceedings for an adult offender. A final or appealable judgment is a final order adjudicating all the rights of all the parties in an action or proceeding, or a judgment made final under Rule 54.02. CR 54.01. Final judgment in a criminal case means sentence. The sentence is the judgment. Burton v. Stewart, 549 U.S. 147, 156, 127 S.Ct. 793, 166 L.Ed.2d 628 ( quoting Berman v. United States, 302 U.S. 211, 212, 58 S.Ct. 164, 82 L.Ed. 204 (1937)). Carneal was sentenced on December 16, 1998, as a youthful offender pursuant to KRS 635.020(4). At that point, all issues relating to Carneal's guilt and his sentence were adjudicated. Moreover, though Carneal entered an unconditional guilty plea, this order is a final and appealable judgment from which youthful offenders customarily file matter-of-right appeals. See e.g. Murphy v. Commonwealth, 50 S.W.3d 173 (Ky.2001); Shepherd v. Commonwealth, 251 S.W.3d 309 (Ky.2008). We are unconvinced that the statutorily mandated 18-year-old hearing is final sentencing, as Carneal argues. Under the 2001 version of KRS 640.030, the trial court had the authority to place a youthful offender on probation or conditional discharge, to return the youthful offender to juvenile custody to complete a treatment plan whereupon he would be finally discharged, or to order transfer to adult corrections. KRS 640.030(2). The circuit court did not have authority to modify, alter, or otherwise dismiss the underlying sentence. Cf. KRS 610.120(1) (juvenile disposition orders may be continued or terminated at any time prior to expiration on the court's own initiative or on motion). In Carneal's case, the trial court was even more limited. Carneal had accepted a sentence of life without the possibility of parole for twenty-five years. This sentence is permissible under KRS 640.040(3) because the limitations on probation and parole were imposed by the sentence, and not as a function of KRS 532.060 as prohibited by the statute. [1] Therefore, at Carneal's 18-year-old hearing, the trial court did not have the option of ordering probation or conditional discharge, nor did it have the ability to return him to juvenile custody to complete a treatment program whereupon he would be finally discharged. Indeed, by virtue of the sentence itself, the trial court's only option was to transfer Carneal to adult custody. [2] The 18-year-old hearing is simply a second look at the manner in which the youthful offender is serving his sentence and provides the trial court the opportunity to consider alternative methods of fulfilling the sentence, other than simply transferring the youthful offender to adult corrections. Indeed, this Court has described the provisions of KRS 640.040 as ameliorative. Britt v. Commonwealth, 965 S.W.2d 147, 149 (Ky.1998). It is not a re-sentencing procedure in the strict sense, as nothing in the language of KRS 640.040 renders the original sentence void. Furthermore, to declare a youthful offender's 18-year-old hearing the final judgment unduly restricts the juvenile's ability to collaterally attack the conviction in a timely manner. Conversely, such a rule would impair meaningful review, as the trial court would be required to consider matters germane only to the original sentencing up to three years after the 18-year-old hearing is complete. Indeed, the claims of error underlying Carneal's motion solely concern his original sentencing proceedings, yet were raised six years after he pled guilty. Youthful offenders, in almost every procedural aspect, are treated as adult offenders: If convicted in the Circuit Court, [the youthful offender] shall be subject to the same penalties as an adult offender[.] KRS 635.020(4). It follows that they should enjoy the same rights as adult criminal defendants, including the ability to collaterally attack the sentence in a timely manner. See Jefferson Cty. Dep't. for Human Services v. Carter, 795 S.W.2d 59, 61 (Ky.1990) (If the juvenile court finds that an individual should be proceeded against as a `youthful offender' the case is transferred to circuit court where all of the constitutional rights guaranteed to adults come into play). We hold that for purposes of post-conviction relief, a youthful offender's original sentencing order is a final judgment. [3] Therefore, Carneal's RCr 11.42 motion is untimely, as it was filed more than three years after his sentencing. Nonetheless, Carneal argues, and the Court of Appeals agreed, that the time for filing his RCr 11.42 action was tolled while he remained a minor. Carneal also argued to the trial court that equitable tolling was required because he suffered from an ongoing mental incompetence.