Court Opinion

ID: 9665315
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 00:44:42.853285+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:15:14.710207
License: Public Domain

WINTERSHEIMER, Justice,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent from that part of the majority opinion which reverses the conviction for incest because the conviction for both rape and incest does not constitute double jeopardy. Two laws have been violated by the appellant. Two penalties should be imposed. No prejudice results because he is to serve both sentences concurrently. A life sentence only means that he will be eligible for parole in less than eight years.
The legislature has prohibited two different crimes. Consequently, there is no logical reason why he is prejudiced by imposing two penalties.
Child abuse by means of the illegal sexual conduct of incest is not a lesser-included offense of the crime of rape. There are two separate laws which have been violated. The majority decision severely limits prosecutors in charging those who abuse female children. It creates a new technical defense and gives an unneeded advantage to those who break the law. The trial court did not err and did not violate the appellant’s constitutional guarantee against double jeopardy as well as his right to be free of multiple prosecutions by permitting a conviction of incest as well as rape.
The crime of incest denounced by KRS 510.040 requires proof of a different fact than does the offense of rape, and rape requires different proof from incest. A conviction for incest requires a showing of sexual contact within a proscribed degree of blood relationship, and there is no requirement that forcible compulsion be shown. On the other hand, blood relationship is irrelevant for a rape conviction but forcible compulsion is a required element. Incest is not a degree of the crime of rape, and rape is not a degree of the crime of incest.
The majority totally misinterprets the case of Blockburger v. United States, 284 U.S. 299, 304, 52 S.Ct. 180, 182, 76 L.Ed. 306 (1932). Two offenses are the same under the double jeopardy clause of the Federal Constitution, unless each requires proof of an additional fact that the other does not. Brown v. Ohio, 432 U.S. 161, 97 S.Ct. 2221, 53 L.Ed.2d 187 (1977). Here the offenses of rape and incest are clearly separate and one is not a lesser-included offense of the other. Each offense requires proof of a fact that the other does not. The appellant’s conviction of rape and incest did not violate the double jeopardy prohibition. The majority opinion is a significant departure from existing case law.
The majority opinion ignores the legislative mandate of KRS 505.020, which states that where a single course of criminal conduct establishes the commission of more than one offense, the accused may be prosecuted for each offense. The exceptions as set out in KRS 505.020(l)(a), (b) and (c) do not apply here. The citations of authority and their interpretation by the majority are not persuasive.
The criminal conduct of the appellant compounded the convictions. He cannot legitimately claim the protection of constitutional double jeopardy. There is no manifest injustice or constitutional infirmity in the conviction for both incest and rape.
I would affirm the conviction in all respects.