Court Opinion

ID: 9648253
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 14:11:39.11299+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:30:49.906269
License: Public Domain

STEPHENSON, Justice,
dissenting.
The majority opinion for all practical purposes permits the perpetrator of a coldblooded, premeditated murder to go free. The granting of a new trial when this court has ruled out the only inculpatory evidence is effectively dismissing the case. The jury found Estes guilty of first-degree ¡ manslaughter, and he was sentenced tp ten years’ imprisonment.
It is apparent that the jury at least partially applied the “unwritten law” which in former years might have resulted in acquittal.
Technically, the majority opinion can be justified. However, this court could get around the effect of KRS 421.210(1) if a majority wished to do so. Surely a court that can find a witness “unavailable” when the witness, a wife, is present but refuses to testify, as in Wells and Richmond, could find a way to admit this statement. The fact that the depositions there were given under oath and the statement here un-sworn should have no effect whatsoever. If the only difference is as cited in the majority that “the evidence was good when given,” then there is no valid reason why the statement given by the wife could not be introduced into evidence if the wife, when called as a witness, refuses to answer questions about the statement. This would require an expansion of Jett, but after all, when it was rendered Jett was a radical departure from traditional rules of evidence. That Jett is a reasonable and rational rule of evidence is not questioned now. In cases where the wife exercises her statutory right not to testify, Jett can logically be expanded to render the facts contained in the statement admissible.
The majority equates the wife’s refusal to testify with a witness’ lawfully invoking the privilege against self-incrimination. This is a strained equation but necessary before the majority can invoke the “right of confrontation” clause of the constitution as the clincher on the assertion that Jett cannot be extended to cover this situation.
This is not a self-incrimination situation; the refusal to testify is for the benefit of the defendant husband. Attempting to assert a confrontation issue in these circumstances would be a fraud on the court. The wife who refuses to testify in order to prevent conviction of her husband in these circumstances could not in good faith decline cross-examination if the statement was ruled admissible in an expansion of Jett.
The statute presents no problem where the wife has not made a statement or been deposed. However, where in Hall and Richmond the wife reveals the facts and here where the wife has made a statement, there is no injustice in permitting the jury to hear the testimony. There is nothing unfair about this.
Adopting what I consider to be the proper rule in expanding Jett requires a look at the statute and what it really excludes.
The majority opinion is a little short on a recitation of the facts. Brevity is to be commended, but sometimes it is desirable to include all the facts which, according to the wife’s statement to the police, are as follows: She stated that she and O’Nan had been lovers for some time and that their relationship had caused many problems in her marriage. On the day of the shooting, she claims that Frank Estes had encouraged her to call John O’Nan to set up a meeting with him so that they could “talk.” She asked Frank Estes whether or not he was going to do anything stupid, and he replied, “No.” Thereafter, Cindy Estes called O’Nan and arranged to meet him in twenty minutes at a nearby car lot. She did not reveal to him the purpose of the meeting or that Frank would be there. After she hung up the phone, Cindy Estes claims she saw her husband grab his gun and head for the door. At this point, she told him that if he left with the gun she was going to call O’Nan back and tell him not to come. Frank replied that she couldn't call O'Nan, and he cut the telephone cord. Cindy stated that she then *428watched her husband get into their truck and head in the direction of the car lot. She began walking toward the lot and eventually heard a gunshot coming from that direction. As she approached, Cindy testified, she saw O’Nan lying on the ground.
The only eyewitness to the incident stated that after the shooting he saw a man with long hair wearing a dark jacket, jeans, and a shoulder harness with a long gun in it. The man was walking into the woods. He could not identify the man. This testimony was supported by policewoman Dunbar who stated that Cindy told her that her husband was wearing a Levi jacket, blue jeans, and a baseball cap and carrying his gun in a “sling” when he left the house that day.
Thus we should interpret the pertinent part of the current statute which reads:
In all actions between husband and wife, or between either or both of them and another, either or both of them may testify as other witnesses, except as to confidential communications between them during marriage,_(emphasis added). KRS 421.210(1).
Under today’s marital privilege, spouses are free to testify for or against their partner if they so desire. Anything that constitutes a confidential communication between spouses, however, is privileged.
It must be determined what constitutes a “confidential communication” under KRS 421.210(1).
We first addressed the meaning of “communication,” as contemplated by the statutory marital privilege, in Commonwealth v. Sapp, 90 Ky. 580, 585, 14 S.W. 834, 835 (1890). There it was held that the marital privilege includes all knowledge obtained by a spouse by virtue of the marriage. We stated:
The word “communication,” therefore, as used in our statute, should be given a liberal construction. It should not be confined to a mere statement by the husband to the wife or vice versa; but should be construed to embrace all knowledge upon the part of the one or the other obtained by reason of the marriage relation, and which, but for the confidence growing out of it, would not have been known to the party.
This broad construction of the term “communication” has been followed in subsequent cases.
I am of the opinion that Sapp and the cases that follow it construe the statute too broadly. In Wells v. Commonwealth, Ky., 562 S.W.2d 622 (1978), there is the following dicta which demonstrate that we have previously given this matter some thought:
At its very best, the rule that one party to a marriage cannot be compelled to testify against the other, codified in KRS 421.210, is one of the most ill-founded precepts to be found in the common law. It is enough that it continues to exist at all. When it is encountered it is better to be trimmed than enlarged. Least of all should it be allowed as a gambit to expunge evidence that was perfectly proper and admissible when given.
I am of the opinion that we should now adopt the above reasoning and construe the statute narrowly in accordance with its terms.
KRS 421.210(1) states that only “confidential communications” are protected by the marital privilege. Webster’s Dictionary defines “communication” as the “giving or exchanging of information, signals or messages by talk, gestures, writing, etc.” “Confidential” is defined as “communicated in confidence ... secret.” Using these definitions, we should hold that only verbal exchanges and affirmative nonverbal exchanges which are intended to relay some thought between spouses are protected by the marital privilege under KRS 421.-210(1). Actions which are described at trial, such as getting a gun and walking out the door, as in this case, are not communications to the other spouse and, therefore, are not protected. Sapp and all other cases in conflict with this decision should be overruled.
Further, as to confidentiality, in Gill v. Commonwealth, Ky., 374 S.W.2d 848 (1964), we held that any action, occurrence, or verbal exchange between spouses that *429could have been seen or heard by a third person is not protected by the marital privilege. Once someone other than the spouse has been exposed to the communication, it loses its confidentiality.
I am of the further opinion that communications between husband and wife which relate to actions which are not privileged and which could be testified to in such a way as to be presented to the jury by inference are not privileged. For example, Frank Estes’ request of Cindy to call O’Nan and arrange a meeting will be understood by the jury in any event after Cindy’s testimony regarding her actions.
Using this test, all of the matters in the statement are outside the scope of the statutory privilege. The facts that Cindy saw what her husband was wearing, watched him get his gun, cut the telephone cord, and leave in a certain direction to meet O’Nan are not protected by KRS 421.210(1) for the reason those facts are not “communications” between spouses.
I would reverse the case for a new trial, as I agree with the majority opinion in the remarks regarding the residual hearsay rule. However, I would accord the Commonwealth the right on a new trial to call the wife as a witness and, if she refuses to testify, invoke the principles of Jett in order to give the jury the benefit of her statement to the police.
Accordingly, I dissent.
GANT and WINTERSHEIMER, JJ., join in this dissent.