Court Opinion

ID: 9755087
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 20:24:24.671868+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:28:02.433671
License: Public Domain

Dissenting Opinion by
Justice STUMBO.
Respectfully, I dissent from Section VI. of the majority opinion in which the Court finds no error in the use of edited videotapes to present the Commonwealth’s case during the penalty phase. I do not state here that this use of video rather than live testimony is in itself erroneous. This Court has approved of this method during retrial as it is both efficient and less costly than recalling every witness.
*856However, in the case at bar, some of the problems inherent in videotaped trial proceedings so adversely affected Appellant’s sentencing phase that it must be repeated. Jurors fell asleep during the proceedings on at least two occasions, a fact noted by defense counsel, the prosecutor and the trial judge. Demonstrative exhibits used by the videotaped witnesses, such as diagrams and a model of the crime scene, are difficult to interpret on the video. Also, narration of a crime scene video made by a testifying police officer was not recorded and, thus, the sentencing jury did not hear it.
When we spoke approvingly of the use of videotaped proceedings as evidence on retrial, we noted that “the second sentencing jury [is] in a position no different from the first jury as it embarked upon the penalty phase.” Skaggs v. Commonwealth, Ky., 694 S.W.2d 672, 679 (1985). That cannot be said of these particular proceedings. I would reverse and remand for a new sentencing phase.