Court Opinion

ID: 9770741
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 16:20:27.243454+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:31:20.288635
License: Public Domain

JOHNSTONE, Justice,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent because I disagree with the majority’s analysis and conclusion concerning Norris’s statements that identify Moseley as her abuser.
It is undisputed that Forrest Moseley shot and killed Mary Yvett Fuqua Norris. The only issue at trial was Moseley’s state of mind at the time of the shooting. A number of witnesses testified that, on several different occasions prior to her death, Norris exhibited observable manifestations of physical abuse and that Norris contemporaneously identified Moseley as her abuser. The majority correctly states that, in a case of this nature, evidence of ongoing physical abuse is relevant and admissible as immediate circumstances that bear directly on the events leading to the tragedy. Dye v. Commonwealth, Ky., 477 S.W.2d 805, 807 (1972). However, the majority goes on to hold that it was a constitutional error to admit this evidence simply because the threads connecting the victim to her abuser were Norris’s own out-of-court statements identifying Moseley as the person responsible for her beatings and abuse.
In Idaho v. Wright, 497 U.S. 805, 110 S.Ct. 3139, 111 L.Ed.2d 638 (1990), the United States Supreme Court made clear that the Confrontation Clause of the Sixth Amendment cannot be read so literally as to bar the admission of all out-of-court statements, and that, while they protect similar values, the Confrontation Clause’s prohibitions do not equate with the general prohibition against hearsay. Id. at 814, 110 S.Ct. at 3145-46, 111 L.Ed.2d at 651. The standard for the admission of hearsay set forth in Wright is that the proponent of the statement must show: 1) that the declarant-witness is unavailable to testify; and 2) that, after a witness is shown to be unavailable, the witness’s out-of-court statement is admissible only if it bears a sufficient indicia of reliability. Id, at 814, 110 S.Ct. at 3145-46, 111 L.Ed.2d at 651-52. The Court then explained that if the statement does not fall within a firmly rooted hearsay exception, it must be excluded absent a showing of particularized guarantees of trustworthiness. Id. at 815, 110 S.Ct. at 3146-47, 111 L.Ed.2d at 652. The Court further explained that “particularized guarantees of trustworthiness” must be shown from a totality of the circumstances, and that “the relevant circumstances include only those that surround the making of the statement and that render the declarant particularly worthy of belief.” Id. at 819, 110 S.Ct. at 3148, 111 L.Ed.2d at 655.
The issue in Wright was whether certain statements were admissible under Idaho’s catch-all hearsay exception. There is no catch-all or residual hearsay exception in Kentucky. Lawson, The Kentucky Evidence Law Handbook, 3d ed., § 8.90 at 505. As pointed out by the majority, the statements admitted against Moseley do not fall under any of the hearsay exceptions set forth in the Kentucky Rules of Evidence. Absent a discussion of admissibility under Wright, I believe that it would have been more prudent for the majority to have excluded Norris’s *464statements on the grounds that the statements do not fall under any recognized hearsay exception rather than excluding them on constitutional grounds. See Rice v. Walls, 213 F.2d 693, 697 (6th Cir.1954) (“[I]f a case can be disposed of on the non-constitutional issue without ruling on the constitutional issue involved, a ruling on the constitutional issue should be avoided.”).
Without going into detail, I believe that the statements attributed to Norris in this case satisfy the standard set forth in Wright. Further, I would find Norris’s out-of-court statements admissible under existing Kentucky ease law notwithstanding the fact that they do not fall under any of the established hearsay exceptions.
In Smith v. Commonwealth, Ky., 904 S.W.2d 220 (1995), the Commonwealth produced evidence of the defendant’s abuse of the decedent in an effort to establish a pattern of abuse that culminated in murder. Id. at 223. Part of this evidence consisted of an affidavit by the decedent victim in which he stated that the defendant “likes to abuse me.” Id. Though contained in a sworn affidavit, the statement was still hearsay, which did not fall under any of the established hearsay exceptions. Barnes v. Commonwealth, Ky., 794 S.W.2d 165, 168 (1990). We found no error in the admission of either the evidence of abuse or in the admission of the statement. Id. at 224. Further, the hearsay issue was clearly before the Court. Id. at 226 (Chief Justice Stephens dissenting).
In Matthews v. Commonwealth, Ky., 709 S.W.2d 414 (1985), the Commonwealth introduced evidence of the existing difficulties between the defendant and his wife prior to the wife’s murder. Id. at 418. The evidence included warrants for sexual abuse and for burglary taken out by the decedent. Id. at 418. We held that both warrants were admissible because they were “relevant not only as evidence of motive or state of mind, but as part of the immediate circumstances of the crimes charged.” Id. Further, we found that the burglary warrant was admissible even though there was no direet evidence that the defendant was aware of its existence at the time of the murder, because “the circumstances that led to the warrant, and the warrant itself, reflected on a relevant pattern of conduct.” Id. Whether the affidavit in support of the warrant was introduced into evidence is irrelevant. For the warrant by its very nature was, in essence, an out-of-court statement by the murder victim that, prior to the murder, the defendant had burglarized her home.
Norris’s statements identifying Moseley as her abuser were admissible under the authority of Smith and Matthews. Because the trial court did not err in admitting these statements, I would affirm the conviction in all respects.
GRAVES and WINTERSHEIMER, JJ., join this dissent.