Court Opinion

ID: 9567762
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 19:57:28.28841+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T10:20:35.774013
License: Public Domain

WALTERS, Chief Judge,
specially concurring.
While I agree that the thirty-day sentence imposed in this case was reasonable, I believe this Court’s holding in regard to the length of the sentence is little more than a gratuitous imprimatur, because of mootness of the sentence issue. See Dillingham v. Commonwealth, 249 S.W.2d 827 (Ky.1952). It will be recalled that Carper was given thirty days in confinement, to be served concurrent with a sentence already being served by him in the penitentiary. At the time Carper received the thirty-day sentence, the judge informed him that he had forty-two days within which to file an appeal. Carper timely appealed, but only after the thirty-day period of confinement had expired. Carper has made no showing why the appeal was not filed while the thirty-day sentence was still extant in order to test the reasonableness of the sentence, if Carper genuinely was convinced the sentence was an abuse of discretion.
The traditional rule is that the satisfaction of a sentence by the service of a prison term renders the case moot so as to preclude a direct review of the conviction or sentence. Annot., When Criminal Case Becomes Moot so as to Preclude Review of or Attack on Conviction or Sentence, 9 A.L.R.3d 462, § 8(b) at 482-83 (1966). The policy grounds expressed by various courts adhering to the traditional rule are: lack of jurisdiction, the impropriety of disseminating gratuitous judicial advice, the need for an end to litigation, and the inference that an accused who satisfies his sentence intends to accept it. Id. at 467. A result similar to the effect of the traditional rule has obtained in Idaho, at least with respect to a judgment imposing a fine in a criminal case. In State v. Snyder, 88 Idaho 479, 401 P.2d 548 (1965), our Supreme Court held that “[ajfter the satisfaction of a judgment in a criminal case there is nothing on which a judgment of the appellate court can act effectively because there is nothing from which to appeal, and further proceedings are moot.” 88 Idaho at 482, 401 P.2d at 550.
Some jurisdictions recognize limited exceptions to the traditional rule expressed above. One exception is to allow consideration of the accused’s interest in clearing his name from the stigma of a criminal conviction; another is where the accused suffers from collateral legal disabilities apart from the sentence. Annot., supra, at 483-86. However, here Carper has not asserted that either exception is applicable in his case. Both of those exceptions relate to the propriety of the entry of a judgment of conviction and not as a distinct avenue to question the length of a sentence.
Under the circumstances, I agree with the state that Carper’s appeal should be dismissed on the basis that the appellate court is unable to provide Carper with any relief upon a sentence that already had expired before Carper filed his notice of appeal, where Carper seeks only to question the reasonableness of the length of the sentence. I therefore agree with the Court’s opinion that the judgment of conviction and sentence should be left intact, but on the ground that dismissal of the appeal would leave the judgment of conviction and sentence undisturbed.