Court Opinion

ID: 9656909
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 20:07:09.767351+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:13:37.967768
License: Public Domain

WINTERSHEIMER, Justice,
concurring in part and dissenting in part.
I fully concur with the majority opinion that the maximum aggregate sentence limitation contained in the statute can be the subject of a knowing and voluntary waiver by a person in whose favor the limitation operates. However, I must respectfully dissent from that portion of the opinion which remands the case to the circuit court with directions to conduct an evidentiary hearing on the waiver issue pursuant to the RCr 11.42 motion.
An evidentiary hearing was not required because the questions raised by Meyers could easily be disposed of by reference to the trial court record. An evidentiary hearing is not necessary when the allegations are refuted by the record. See Commonwealth v. Stamps, Ky., 672 S.W.2d 336 (1984); Beecham v. Commonwealth, Ky. 657 S.W.2d 234 (1983); Lay v. Commonwealth, Ky., 506 S.W.2d 507 (1974). Here, defense counsel was fully aware of the statutory limitation imposed on the sentence but as a matter of strategy advised his client to accept the plea bargain despite the statutory limitation. The evidence could not be any different. Trial counsel can make strategic decisions which are intended to benefit the defendant and under these circumstances, the error cannot be reviewed. See Estelle v. Williams, 425 U.S. 501, 96 S.Ct. 1691, 48 L.Ed.2d 126 (1976). Here, if the defendant had been convicted by a jury, he could have received a very severe sentence. Instead, in return for his guilty plea to the reduced charge of first-degree manslaughter, he was sentenced to 25 years and could be eligible for parole in only five years after the beginning of his sentence.