Opinion ID: 406251
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: kimbrough as new law

Text: 37 As the majority opinion correctly notes, the petitioners moved for a directed verdict of acquittal at the close of the government's case-in-chief citing a lack of evidence to support a conviction. While they failed to renew this motion at the close of all the evidence, they did petition the trial court for a new trial after the verdict was rendered. Under Kentucky law prior to Kimbrough this was adequate to preserve for appellate review the question of the sufficiency of the evidence. Kimbrough was decided after the petitioners' trial was completed. The state cannot, consistent with due process safeguards, retroactively apply new procedural rules to bar existing substantive deficiencies in the state's proof. 38 Inexplicably, the Supreme Court of Kentucky, in its final decision in this case stated: 39 We rely substantially on two recent cases, Kimbrough v. Commonwealth, Ky., 550 S.W.2d 525 (1977) and Rudolph v. Commonwealth, Ky., 564 S.W.2d 1, cert. denied, 439 U.S. 1004, 99 S.Ct. 616, 58 L.Ed.2d 680 (1978). The procedural rule, as clarified in Kimbrough, is that in order for the issue of the sufficiency of the evidence to be preserved for appellate review, the party wishing to use the insufficiency as a basis for his appeal must have moved for a directed verdict at the close of all the evidence, not just at the close of the Commonwealth's case in chief. 40 Commonwealth v. Blair, 592 S.W.2d 132, 133, (Ky.1979), cert. denied, 449 U.S. 962, 101 S.Ct. 377, 66 L.Ed.2d 230 (1980) (emphasis supplied). Neither in Kimbrough nor in Blair did the court cite any case which supported its statement that the Kimbrough rule was a mere clarification of, and not a radical deviation from, prior practice. There certainly was no basis in either statute or court rule for deciding that the procedure had been well-settled prior to Kimbrough. The Kentucky courts have not cited and the appellant has not pointed to any case in which such a rule was either stated or applied. How the Kimbrough decision merely clarified existing law escapes detection. In fact, the case law from Kentucky, even that cited by the state in this Court, supports the interpretation that Kimbrough was new law, not a reiteration of existing practice. 41 In DeLong v. Commonwealth, 225 Ky. 461, 9 S.W.2d 136 (1928), defendants sought to reverse their convictions for burglary. At the close of the government's case the defendants' motion for peremptory instruction was overruled which, the court implies, would have been erroneous had the defendants not presented proof of their own guilt. The defendants, therefore, could not complain now because the court failed to direct their acquittal at the close of the commonwealth's evidence. Id. at 463, 9 S.W.2d 136. The court implicitly recognized that the issue of the sufficiency of the evidence was preserved once a motion is made for acquittal at the close of the government's case. See also Lyon v. Prater, 351 S.W.2d 173 (Ky.1961) (right to rely on motion for directed verdict at close of plaintiff's case based on insufficiency of evidence waived when defendant's evidence cured omissions in plaintiff's case, again implicitly recognizing that review of evidence would be appropriate had the gaps not been filled in); Harvey v. Commonwealth, 423 S.W.2d 535, 537 (Ky.1967) (same). 42 More recently, in Crain v. Commonwealth, 484 S.W.2d 839, 842 (Ky.1972), the appellant alleged, inter alia, that the trial court had erred in not directing a verdict of acquittal since the evidence was insufficient to justify a conviction. The court stated: 43 There was no motion for a directed verdict in Crain's behalf at the close of the Commonwealth's case, nor at the close of all the evidence; consequently, this question was not properly preserved for appellate review. 44 (emphasis supplied, citation omitted). The clear implication of this language is that a motion at either of the above-mentioned times would have been sufficient to preserve the issue for appellate consideration. In Hatton v. Commonwealth, 409 S.W.2d 818, 819 (Ky.1966) a similar rule was announced when the court stated that it would not review the sufficiency of the evidence since the (a)ppellant did not move for a directed verdict or a peremptory instruction, nor ... for a new trial. See also Minor v. Commonwealth, 478 S.W.2d 716, 717 (Ky.1971), cert. denied, 409 U.S. 1064, 93 S.Ct. 563, 34 L.Ed.2d 517 (1972) (same). 45 There is some indication that the question of the sufficiency of the evidence could be preserved, pre-Kimbrough, by a motion for a new trial if that ground was relied upon in the motion. In Stone v. Commonwealth, 456 S.W.2d 43 (Ky.1970), the court reversed defendant's conviction. The defendant had unsuccessfully moved for a new trial on the basis of discovery of new evidence. The court reversed because of the insufficiency of the evidence which had resulted in a manifest injustice. See also Hatton, supra. 46 The state principally argues that its criminal rules of procedure always required a motion at the close of all the evidence to preserve the sufficiency issue for review, R.Cr. 9.54, and thus the Kimbrough rule was merely a reiteration of that requirement. Even though, as we have seen, that proposition is far from clear, it has no relevance in the instant case. R.Cr. 9.54(2), a provision providing for peremptory instructions, is only invoked when the evidence is insufficient to sustain the burden of proof on one or more, but less than all, of the issues presented by the case.... Kimbrough v. Commonwealth, 550 S.W.2d 525, 529 (Ky.1977) (emphasis in original). A directed verdict is the appropriate motion under Kentucky law when the movant seeks total acquittal, when it would be clearly unreasonable for a jury to find the defendant guilty, under any possible theory, of any of the crimes charged in the indictment or of any lesser included offenses. Campbell v. Commonwealth, 564 S.W.2d 528, 530 (Ky.1978) (emphasis in original). The petitioners in the case sub judice sought total acquittal of the charges because the evidence was insufficient to sustain any conviction. Thus, and properly so, they moved for a directed verdict and not for a peremptory instruction.