Opinion ID: 1769906
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Although the jury instructions were proper, the trial court's sentencing was in error.

Text: Appellant's first argument, which is unpreserved, is that the trial court's jury instructions improperly gave the jury the capacity to choose whether the sentences for Appellant's convictions would run concurrently or consecutively, since the court ultimately concluded that concurrent sentencing was not an option. As requested, we will review for palpable error. RCr 10.26. Here, Appellant was convicted of three counts of trafficking in a controlled substance. These crimes were committed while Appellant was on parole. [1] Appellant now argues that the jury was improperly instructed as to sentencing because the trial court ignored the jury's sentence recommendations, and such instructions were erroneous in that they instructed as to an unavailable alternative. Specifically, Appellant claims that the trial court erred in instructing the jury that they could choose to run his terms consecutively or concurrently, as the court ultimately concluded otherwise. Moreover, Appellant alleges that had the jury known that their sentencing recommendations would not be followed there is a great likelihood they would have recommended a reduced sentence. During sentencing, the jury was instructed, in sentencing instruction 11, You, the jury, have convicted the Defendant of multiple felonies. You shall also decide whether the felony sentences shall be run concurrently (at the same time) or consecutively (one after the other). Thereupon, the jury recommended sentences of seven, eight, and nine years for the three counts. The sentences were then doubled due to the persistent felony offender conviction. This enhanced the jury's recommendations to fourteen, sixteen, and eighteen years, respectively. The jury elected, as per their right, to run these sentences concurrently so that Appellant would serve a total of eighteen years. KRS 532.055(2); see Foley v. Commonwealth, 942 S.W.2d 876, 886 (Ky.1996). At sentencing, however, the trial judge determined she could not sentence Appellant to concurrent terms. The judge concluded the sentences for the two counts in the first indictment should run concurrently, but the sentence for the count in the second indictment should run consecutively to the first indictment. This gave Appellant a thirty-four year sentence. Accordingly, the crux of the present issue becomes whether the trial court properly applied KRS 533.060(2) in its treatment of Appellant's sentence. To answer, we must determine, then, whether Devore v. Commonwealth, 662 S.W.2d 829, 831 (Ky.1984) still presents good law. KRS 533.060(2) mandates: When a person has been convicted of a felony and is committed to a correctional detention facility and released on parole or has been released by the court on probation, shock probation, or conditional discharge, and is convicted or enters a plea of guilty to a felony committed while on parole, probation, shock probation, or conditional discharge, the person shall not be eligible for probation, shock probation, or conditional discharge and the period of confinement for that felony shall not run concurrently with any other sentence. KRS 533.060(2) (emphasis added). This Court initially addressed KRS 533.060(2)'s impact on sentencing in Devore , where Chief Justice Stephens, writing for the majority, articulated that the General Assembly, through its enactment of KRS 533.060(2), sought to elicit certain consequences for felons who commit subsequent felonies while on probation or parole. Devore, 662 S.W.2d at 831. Consequently, in such instances, these ramifications are twofold: (1) The defendant shall not (for the subsequent felony) be eligible for probation, shock probation or conditional discharge, and (2) The length of the person[']s sentence (again, for the subsequent felony conviction) shall not run concurrently with any other sentence. By obvious inference, the General Assembly has said that the prison sentence (for the second felony conviction) shall be run consecutively. Id. The Court went on to further explain that in enacting the statute, the legislature's intent was to institute stiffer penalties on those who commit subsequent felonies while paroled by not having their subsequent sentences served concurrently. Id. It is undoubtedly true, as Devore recognizes, that the legislature's intent was to strengthen the ramifications for repeat offenders and those who have betrayed the position of trust they have been afforded by a grant of parole or probation. However, it is our belief here today that Devore sought to interpret this legislative intent with a much heavier hand than the statute, the legislature or the jails and prisons of this Commonwealth could have ever envisioned. Devore posits that subsequent multiple-count felony convictions committed while on parole must be run consecutively to one another. And, indeed, this has been the courts' treatment of KRS 533.060(2) in many instances since Devore . However, the proper application of the statute under Devore's interpretation has been a source of conflict and confusion within the Commonwealth's courts for nearly twenty-four years now, stemming partly from the incongruous and excessive sentencing results which it may, in some instances, yield. Thus, under Devore , the trial courts' treatment of felony offenses committed while on parole has been anything but uniform. Further adding to the confusion in applying KRS 533.060(2) under Devore is its seeming incompatibility with KRS 532.055(2), which states: Upon return of a verdict of guilty or guilty but mentally ill against a defendant, the court shall conduct a sentencing hearing before the jury, if such case was tried before a jury. In the hearing the jury will determine the punishment to be imposed within the range provided elsewhere by law. The jury shall recommend whether the sentences shall be served concurrently or consecutively. Id. Clearly, the language of KRS 532.055(2) vests the jury with the mandate of sentence recommendation. As we have previously recognized, while this recommendation is by no means binding upon the court, the directive of the statute granting this ability is. See Nichols v. Commonwealth, 839 S.W.2d 263, 265 (Ky. 1992). Moreover, a jury's recommendation as to punishment in a jury trial is an integral aspect of the trial landscape. In all felony cases the jury in its initial verdict makes a determination of guilt or innocence. Then the jury makes a recommendation to the trial judge who imposes the final sentence. In making the initial determination, it is clear that this action is subject to the final imposition of sentence by the trial judge. These distinct activities have significance, meaning and importance. They are not automatic or pro forma. Each entity in the sentencing system as established by the legislature has a specific statutory role. KRS 532.055(2) provides in part that the jury will determine punishment. Such determination relates to the initial establishment of a sentence and not to how or in what manner the sentence is to be served. The same section also states that the jury will only recommend whether the sentences shall be served concurrently or consecutively. Dotson v. Commonwealth, 740 S.W.2d 930, 931 (Ky.1987) (emphasis added). While Devore's logic is workable in circumstances wherein a paroled or probated individual commits a singular subsequent felony, it becomes unreasonable when dealing with multiple count subsequent felonies. See Riley v. Parke, 740 S.W.2d 934, 935 (Ky.1987) (the Court stated that pursuant to KRS 533.060(2), conviction for a singular subsequent felony offense should be run consecutive to the reinstated offense for which the offender was on parole); see also Brewer v. Commonwealth, 922 S.W.2d 380, 381 (Ky.1996) (holding that KRS 533.060(2) unambiguously required that appellant's second sentence could not run concurrently with the reinstated sentence that he was on parole for). For example, in the present instance, had the trial court properly applied Devore's interpretation of the statute, Appellant would have received a forty-eight year sentence in addition to the reinstated sentence for which he was on parole. While we refrain from passing judgment as to whether this sentence is fitting, it is clearly not the eighteen-year sentence which the jury intended to assign. Therefore, we are of the opinion the majority's position in Devore leads to an unworkable interpretation of KRS 533.060(2). Rather, we now hold that the logic espoused by Justice Leibson in his dissent provides an inherently more practical understanding of the statute. A reasonable interpretation of the phrase `with any other sentence,' (KRS 533.060(2)) is that `any other sentence' means only the unserved portion of the sentence for the felony for which probation or parole should be revoked. Devore, 662 S.W.2d at 831 (Leibson, J., dissenting). This viewpoint interprets the language, shall not run concurrently with any other sentence, in KRS 533.060(2) as meaning any other sentence previously imposed. Thus, it becomes quite clear in the context of KRS 533.060(2), that the language, the period of confinement for that felony shall not run concurrently with any other sentence, should be construed as meaning that subsequent felony offense(s) committed while on probation or parole may not be run concurrently with the sentence for which the individual is on probation or parole. In the instance of multiple-count subsequent felony offenses committed while on probation or parole, however, these subsequent offenses may be run either consecutively or concurrently, at the court's discretion. This connotation is the only rational and practical manner in which the statute can be reasonably applied. What is at stake here is judicial transparency. The judiciary is duty-bound to maintain credibility with the jurors of this Commonwealth. As a matter of policy, the Commonwealth's courts should not instruct a jury that they have options in relegating a sentence for a criminal defendant, and then take these options away. It is incumbent upon this Court to ensure that the People have confidence in their judiciary. Therefore, if we instruct the jury that they have the power to recommend a sentence with one hand, and then take that decision away from them with the other, we have failed in our task to uphold the mandates and ideals of our Constitution. Accordingly, we hold that to the extent Devore requires all subsequent sentences for crimes committed while on probation or parole to be run consecutively to each other, it is overruled. Thus, we now turn to the merits of Appellant's argument. In instances such as the one at present, when an individual on parole is facing multiple and contemporaneous felony convictions for subsequent crimes (committed while on parole), the jury may still recommend whether to run these subsequent convictions consecutively or concurrently with each other. In these circumstances, the discretion remains with the jury to recommend consecutive or concurrent treatment, as per their statutory right. KRS 532.055(2). It must be reiterated, however, that the court may not run these subsequent convictions concurrent with the paroled offense. KRS 533.060(2). Here, the trial court incorrectly determined that the jury's recommendation was not an option. Instead, the court concluded that it must run the eighteen year sentence (from the second indictment) consecutively with the concurrent treatment (sixteen years) of the first two counts (from the first indictment). This imposed a total sentence of thirty-four years. In this manner, the judge ran the sentences for the two counts in the first indictment concurrently but ran the sentence for the count in the second indictment consecutively to the first indictment. The trial judge erroneously applied KRS 533.060(2) by reading it as applicable to subsequent indictments, rather than to the original paroled or probated offense(s). Therefore, while there was no error in the trial court's jury instructions, the court did err, however, to Appellant's substantial prejudice in its determination of sentencing. The court was not required under KRS 533.060(2) to run the sentences of the subsequent separate indictments consecutively. While Appellant, here, failed to contemporaneously object to the improper sentence, we nevertheless find that the erroneous sentence was injurious to Appellant's substantial rights. Morman v. Commonwealth, No. 2005-SC-000957-MR, 2007 WL 541925, at  (Ky.2007) (finding palpable error when trial court imparted a sentence beyond the maximum allowed under KRS 532.110(1)(c) despite a failure to raise the issue at trial); Lawson v. Commonwealth, 85 S.W.3d 571, 581 (Ky. 2002) (Although we recognize that trial courts have the authority to make a final decision whether a defendant's sentences are to run concurrently or consecutively, and that juries' determinations as to that issue are merely recommendations, we decline the Commonwealth's invitation to find that the error in this case is harmless.). [W]e believe due process entitles Appellant to a jury recommendation as to whether the sentences for his convictions run concurrently or consecutively, and we also know that the jury's recommendation will be considered by the trial court before it makes a final decision. Lawson, 85 S.W.3d at 582. Accordingly, we vacate the sentence of the trial court and remand for resentencing by the court, not the jury. Id.; Boone v. Commonwealth, 821 S.W.2d 813, 814 (Ky. 1992).