Court Opinion

ID: 9734810
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 17:46:55.443496+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:42:50.831271
License: Public Domain

WINTERSHEIMER, Justice,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent from Part II of the majority opinion in which the majority reverses and remands Robinson’s conviction and sentence for three counts of third-degree rape. I simply cannot agree that upholding this marriage does not offend Kentucky’s public policy due to the fraud perpetuated on Tennessee officials and the lack of true consent to the marriage by the child, S.M.H. The adults responsible for protecting S.M.H. purposefully altered her birth certificate and took her to another state for the marriage, where she was afraid she would be abandoned if she did not go through with the marriage. So I would hold that the trial court was correct in not regarding this marriage as valid and in refusing to give an instruction on marriage as a defense to the third-degree rape charges. I would affirm the trial court’s judgment in all respects.
LAMBERT, C.J.; and SCOTT, J., join.