Court Opinion

ID: 9680408
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 07:31:33.526726+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:36:38.425815
License: Public Domain

VANCE, Justice,
concurring.
The majority opinion holds that a person may not be convicted of murder for an intentional act which results in the death of a fetus. I concur with the majority to that extent for the reason that at common law and under the case law of Kentucky as it presently exists there can be no prosecution for murder of a fetus in the absence of proof that the fetus was born alive, breathed and had a complete and separate existence of its own after birth. Jackson v. Commonwealth, 265 Ky. 295, 96 S.W.2d 1014 (1936). Regardless of whatever personal philosophy any judge may have, Jackson, supra, had not been overruled when the act was committed by Hollis. I believe he was entitled to rely upon the decisions of this court which had not been repudiated.
I do not believe it is necessary or proper to extend the opinion of this court to the other issues discussed in the opinion, and for that reason I concur in the result only.
AKER, J., joins in this concurring opinion.