Court Opinion

ID: 9671995
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 03:46:48.979803+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:16:13.617844
License: Public Domain

LEIBSON, Justice,
dissenting in part.
I agree with the majority opinion, except that I would reverse and dismiss because the defendant asked for and was entitled to a directed verdict of acquittal.
The daughter was asleep at the time of the occurrence. The testimony from the appellant’s wife was the only testimony in the record to prove that an offense had occurred. She testified to nothing more than a father bending over his sleeping daughter with his sexual organ limp in his hand. When she challenged what he was doing, he said “What did I do?”
Perhaps he should have had his pants up. But there are a lot of reasons why a father would be standing over his sleeping daughter in this condition, some acceptable and some immoral, other than to commit sodomy, a terrible felony carrying a sentence of twenty years’ imprisonment.
The evidence falls short of what is necessary to prove an attempt to commit sodomy. KRS 506.010(2) provides that “Conduct shall not be held to constitute a substantial step ... unless it is an act or omission which leaves no reasonable doubt as to the defendant’s intention to commit the crime which he is charged with attempting." (Emphasis added.) The conduct here falls short of being sufficient to leave no reasonable doubt that the appellant intended to sodomize his daughter.