Opinion ID: 2411770
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: conviction for both murder and assault and dui

Text: Appellant alleges that trial for criminal offenses based on a motor vehicle accident caused by drunkenness for both murder and DUI (or Assault and DUI) violates double jeopardy principles, citing Grady v. Corbin, 495 U.S. 508, 110 S.Ct. 2084, 109 L.Ed.2d 548 (1990). Grady , which so held, involved consecutive trials. In Grady v. Corbin , the offending motorist was tried first for DUI and then for manslaughter wherein the wanton conduct underlying the charge was principally the DUI. The United States Supreme Court held the second conviction was barred by the Federal double jeopardy principle. Recently, in Walden v. Commonwealth, Ky., 805 S.W.2d 102 (1991), we followed Grady v. Corbin , and went one step further based on Kentucky law, holding conviction for DUI and wanton murder in the same trial likewise violates the double jeopardy principle in the Kentucky Constitution, Sec. 13, and its statutory counterpart, KRS 505.020. In Walden , we reasoned that the safeguard against double jeopardy protects against multiple punishments for what is factually one offense in the same trial as it did in successive trials. Under Kentucky law, in such circumstances the DUI may be submitted to the jury as an alternative to the more serious offense, available in the event the jury does not convict of the greater offense, but not as a subject for additional punishment. The instructions at a new trial shall be stated accordingly.