Court Opinion

ID: 9680583
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 07:34:26.946546+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:17:29.450979
License: Public Domain

LAMBERT, Chief Justice,
Concurring.
KRS 532.025(3) states in part as follows:
In all cases unless at least one (1) of the statutory aggravating circumstances enumerated in subsection (2) of this section is so found, the death penalty, or imprisonment for life without benefit of probation or parole, or the sentence to imprisonment for life without benefit of probation or parole until the defendant has served a minimum of twenty-five (25) years of his sentence, shall not be imposed.
In KRS 532.025(2)(a)(l-7), the statutory aggravating circumstances referred to hereinabove are set forth. A careful examination of the seven aggravating circumstances fails to reveal the crime of kidnapping as an aggravating factor when the underlying crime is murder. While the crime of kidnapping may be prosecuted as a capital offense, it may not serve as an aggravator to the crime of murder.
In its verdict rendered during the penalty phase of appellant’s trial, the jury made the following finding:
The defendant murdered Judy Ann Howard and that at the time Clawvern Jacobs murdered Judy Ann Howard he was engaged in the commission of kidnapping.
Thus the only aggravating circumstance found by the jury was kidnapping and kidnapping is not an available circumstance.
It is a wonder that the Legislature omitted from the statutory scheme the act of kidnapping as an aggravating circumstance to the crime of murder. The only conceivable explanation for such an omission is oversight, but it is not the prerogative of this Court to create aggravating circumstances when the statute expressly forbids it.
For these reasons, I concur with the majority opinion.