Court Opinion

ID: 9668051
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 02:01:10.216549+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:15:42.705213
License: Public Domain

STUMBO, Justice,
dissenting.
Respectfully, I must dissent. I strenuously object not only to the result reached by the majority in this case, but also to its decision to overrule Smith v. Lowe, Ky., 792 S.W.2d 371 (1990). Far from being an “unwarranted extension” of Ashe v. Swenson, 397 U.S. 436, 90 S.Ct. 1189, 25 L.Ed.2d 469 (1970), Smith demonstrates precisely the kind of common sense inquiry which the United States Supreme Court urged in its Ashe analysis. There, the Court stated:
The federal decisions have made clear that the rule of collateral estoppel in criminal cases is not to be applied with the hypertechnical and archaic approach of a 19th century pleading book, but with realism and rationality. Where a previous judgment of acquittal was based upon a general verdict, as is usually the case, this approach requires a court to ‘examine the record of a prior proceeding, taking into account the pleadings, evidence, charge, and other relevant matter, and conclude whether a rational jury could have grounded its verdict upon an issue other than that which the defendant seeks to foreclose from consideration.’ The inquiry ‘must be set in a practical frame and viewed with an eye to all the circumstances of the proceedings.’ Any test more technically restrictive would, of course, simply amount to a rejection of the rule of collateral estop-pel in criminal proceedings, at least in every case where the first judgment was based upon a general verdict of acquittal.
Ashe, 397 U.S. at 443-44, 90 S.Ct. at 1194, 25 L.Ed.2d at 475-76 (emphasis added) (internal citations omitted).
The precise issue which Benton seeks “to foreclose from consideration” in the case(s) at bar, is whether Benton was the person who committed the horrendous acts against the Millses and Mr. Bonner. In order to determine whether the jury in the federal case could have acquitted Benton for any reason other than its disbelief (or, rather, lack of belief beyond a reasonable doubt) that Benton was the perpetrator, we must look to the record of the federal trial which is now before us. As stated above, our inquiry “must be set in a practical frame and viewed with an eye to all the circumstances of the proceedings.” Id. *8397 U.S. at 444, 90 S.Ct. at 1194, 25 L.Ed.2d at 476.
After reviewing the portions of the transcript of the federal trial, along with the federal indictment and jury instructions, it is clear to me that the jury in the federal trial simply did not believe beyond a reasonable doubt that Benton was the perpetrator. The transcript clearly reflects that the sole issue in dispute at the federal trial was the identity of the perpetrator. The defense did not contradict the Millses’ version of the events they suffered on that tragic night, but rather merely established that neither survivor got a good look at their assailant, and that neither could identify Benton as the man who rode with them in the vehicle for over an hour. Furthermore, the testimony of Benton’s “friends,” who stated that Benton had confessed committing the crime to them, was full of contradictions. Moreover, several of these friends had access to the gun which killed Mr. Bonner, to the Millses’ car, and to the car which the Millses identified as belonging to their assailant, and several had accepted a deal from the prosecution in exchange for their testimony against Benton.
The jury instructions in the federal trial required the jury to find each of the following beyond a reasonable doubt before convicting Benton:
FIRST: That on December 16,1995, the defendant, Gary Benton, took or attempted to take a motor vehicle from the person or presence of Mr. Bonner and Mr. and Mrs. Mills;
SECOND: That the defendant did so by force, violence or by intimidation;
THIRD: That the defendant intended to cause death or serious bodily harm;
FOURTH: That prior to the taking of the motor vehicle by the defendant, the vehicle had been transported in interstate commerce;
FIFTH: That the defendant acted knowingly and intentionally.
Based on the Millses’ uncontradicted testimony at trial, there can be no doubt that the events described in the first, second and fifth instructions were easily proven. Someone clearly took their car, by force, violence and intimidation, and did so knowingly and intentionally.
Similarly, after hearing the testimony of the medical examiner who testified that Mr. Bonner was shot in the head at close range, the jury could not have doubted that the perpetrator intended to cause Mr. Bonner’s death or serious bodily harm, as required by the third instruction. Contrary to the majority’s analysis of this issue, the instructions in this case did not require the jury to find that Benton formed the intent to cause Mr. Bonner’s death before stealing the Millses’ car.
Lastly, given the fact that the defense did not cross-examine the car dealer who established that the Millses’ car had been shipped through interstate commerce, there can be little doubt that the fourth instruction was proven to the jury’s satisfaction. The Commonwealth argues it is quite possible the jury simply did not understand the importance of the car-dealer’s testimony in establishing the interstate commerce element set forth in instruction number four, and thus acquitted Benton because it did not believe this element was proven beyond a reasonable doubt. The majority opinion latches on to this ridiculous notion as its basis for denying Benton his requested relief, simply on the ground that “trial lawyers and trial judges ... know there is seldom anything ‘obvious’ about a general verdict of a jury.” In the instant case, nothing could be further from the truth.
What rational jurist could believe that the jury, although convinced that Benton abducted these people at gunpoint, drove them around for hours, shot one of them in the head, then left the others on a deserted road while he took off in their car, acquitted the man because it simply did not believe the car had been transported in interstate commerce? To so conclude would be to ignore completely the com*9mon-sense approach dictated by Ashe and deftly applied in Smith.
Benton was tried and acquitted by a U.S. District Court jury. The only disputed issue in that trial was whether Benton committed the crimes. By acquitting Benton of the crime charged, the jury resolved that issue. In other words, the jury concluded that Benton didn’t do it, or at least that the prosecution had failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Benton did it. This issue of fact is the crux of all three subsequent state court charges and it is the quintessential fact “necessary to a conviction in the subsequent prosecution.” What matters is that the issue of identity has been resolved once in Benton’s favor, and he may not be forced to defend against that issue a second time. The bedrock principle of double jeopardy protection, codified in KRS 505.050(2), prohibits Benton’s trial in Kentucky state court after his acquittal for the same criminal conduct in federal court.
Accordingly, I would affirm the trial court’s dismissal of the murder charge, and grant the writ prohibiting the trial court from proceeding on the charges of kidnaping and robbery.
LAMBERT, C.J., and JOHNSTONE, J., join.