Court Opinion

ID: 9655843
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 19:23:29.843788+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:13:22.466693
License: Public Domain

KELLER, Justice,
dissenting.
I dissent from the majority opinion because I disagree with the conclusions it reaches regarding both the videotaped evidence, Part II, and the intoxication defense, Part III. In my opinion, neither assignment of error justifies our reversal of Fields’ conviction.
NARRATED VIDEOTAPE EVIDENCE
While I agree with the majority’s conclusion that the narrated portion of the videotape was inadmissible hearsay, I cannot agree that the improper admission of this evidence was sufficiently prejudicial under RCr 9.24 to warrant reversal of the conviction. Much of the material contained in the video demonstration concerns the locations and movements of the investigating officers while on the scene, and these were not only uncontested issues, but also minor matters of the type found harmless in State v. Van Tran, 864 S.W.2d 465 (Tenn.1993). Fields contests factually only the segment of the video demonstration where Officer Lindeman describes the encounter between himself and Fields and where he recites Fields’ alleged confession. Fields testified that Officer Lindeman jumped on him, knocked him on the floor, put a gun to his head, threatened to shoot him, and accused him of killing Bess Horton. This was contradicted by Officer Lindeman’s testimony at trial. The majority opinion indicates that Fields denied telling Officer Lindeman that he had stabbed Bess Horton, but Fields admitted during his testimony that he may have made the statements in an effort to appease Officer Lindeman.
While I believe the majority is correct to describe the audio narration on the videotape as an inadmissable prior consistent statement offered to bolster Lindeman’s in-court testimony, I do not feel that its introduction into evidence and the Commonwealth’s presentations of the video to the jury “affected the substantial rights” of Fields. RCr 9.24.
Fields testified during the guilt/innocence phase of his trial, and, in addition to exposing himself to impeachment on the basis of his prior felony record, gave the jury an opportunity to hear his theory that his girlfriend had killed Bess Horton. Of*286ficer Lindeman testified at trial consistently with his narration on the videotape and Fields had an opportunity to cross-examine him on all of that testimony. The jury heard from an emergency room EMT, Jason Dobson, that Fields incriminated himself by explaining the large amount of blood on his arms and clothing with the statement, “You stupid s.o.b., if you had just killed some lady, you would be covered with blood, too.” After deliberating on all of the evidence presented, the jury believed beyond a reasonable doubt that Fields murdered Bess Horton.
RCr 9.24 directs this Court to reverse a criminal conviction on the basis of eviden-tiary matters only when it appears to us that “the denial of such relief would be inconsistent with substantial justice.” I cannot conclude that the jury was so divided over the issue of the relative credibility of Fields and Officer Lindeman that they were swayed by the number of times Officer Lindeman’s version was presented to them. Both Fields and Officer Linde-man testified in court during the trial. This afforded the jury the opportunity to assess and weigh their relative credibility. I believe the trial court’s admission of the narrated videotape was erroneous, but insufficiently prejudicial to justify reversal because I do not believe that if the audio portion of the videotape had been played fewer times, or not at all, that the jury would have reached any other conclusion.
INTOXICATION DEFENSE & SECOND-DEGREE MANSLAUGHTER
In Part III of the majority opinion, the Court holds that the trial court committed reversible error by failing to instruct the jury on the lesser included offense of second-degree manslaughter. I disagree with this conclusion because the majority’s holding represents a radical departure from precedent which holds that the trial court may only instruct on lesser included offenses when the evidence presented “justifies] a doubt based on the theory that the crime committed was of a lower degree or lesser culpability.” Brown v. Commonwealth, Ky., 555 S.W.2d 252, 257 (1977). As all of the evidence concerning Bess Horton’s murder demonstrates an intentional murder devoid of any wanton component whatsoever, the majority holding creates a special rule that trial .judges who instruct juries on the defense of voluntary intoxication must always also instruct on second-degree manslaughter as a “package deal.” Because I can see no principled basis or statutory support for such a rule, I must dissent.
Lesser included' offenses are not an entitlement, and this Court has consistently held that trial courts should instruct on lesser included offenses “only if, considering the totality of the evidence, the jury might have a reasonable doubt as to the defendant’s guilt of the greater offense, and yet believe beyond a reasonable doubt that he is guilty of the lesser offense.” Tamme v. Commonwealth, Ky., 973 S.W.2d 13, 36-7 (1998) (citing Webb v. Commonwealth, Ky., 904 S.W.2d 226 (1995)); See also, Brown v. Commonwealth, supra; Tipton v. Commonwealth, Ky., 640 S.W.2d 818, 820 (1982) (“[T]o support a lesser included instruction the posture of the evidence must be such as to create a reasonable doubt as to whether the defendant is guilty of the higher or lower degree.” Id.); Moore v. Commonwealth, Ky., 771 S.W.2d 34, 37 (1989) (citing Hayes v. Commonwealth, Ky., 625 S.W.2d 583 (1982)) (“It is not proper to instruct the jury on a wanton offense when all the evidence indicates that it would be unreasonable for the jury to believe that the defendant’s conduct was anything other than intentional.” Id.); Gall v. Commonwealth, Ky., 607 S.W.2d 97, 108-109 (1980).
The United States Supreme Court, in Hopper v. Evans, 456 U.S. 605, 102 S.Ct. 2049, 72 L.Ed.2d 367 (1982) clarified that the decision as to whether to instruct a jury on lesser included offenses has a constitutional dimension: “due process re*287quires that a lesser included offense instruction be given when the evidence warrants such an instruction. But due process requires that a lesser included offense instruction be given only when the evidence warrants such an instruction.” Id at 611, 102 S.Ct. 2049; See Cox v. Commonwealth, Ky., 491 S.W.2d 834 (1973).
KRS 501.020 defines the mental states applicable in the Kentucky Penal Code:
(1) “Intentionally” — A person acts intentionally with respect to a result or to conduct described by a statute defining an offense when his conscious objective is to cause that result or to engage in that conduct.
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(3) “Wantonly” — A person acts wantonly with respect to a result or to a circumstance described by a statute defining an offense when he is aware of and consciously disregards a substantial and unjustifiable risk that the result will occur or that the circumstance exists. The risk must be of such nature and degree that disregard thereof constitutes a gross deviation from the standard of 'conduct that a reasonable person would observe in the situation. A person who creates such a risk but is unaware thereof solely by reason of involuntary intoxication also acts wantonly with respect thereto.
(4) “Recklessly” — A person acts recklessly with respect to a result or to a circumstance described by a statute defining an offense when he fails to perceive a substantial and unjustifiable risk that the result will occur or that the circumstance exists. The risk must be of such nature and degree that failure to perceive it constitutes a gross deviation from the standard of care that a reasonable person would observe in the situation.
KRS 501.020.
It is important to realize that, unlike at common law,1 the culpable mental states defined at KRS 501.020 are fully and clearly defined so as to be mutually exclusive. In Wells v. Commonwealth, Ky., 561 S.W.2d 85, 88 (1978), we described intent and wantonness manifesting extreme indifference to the value of human life as “two distinct culpable mental states.” Id. “ ‘Culpable mental state’ means ‘intentionally’ or ‘knowingly’ or “wantonly’ or ‘recklessly,’ as those terms are defined in KRS 501.020.” KRS 501.010(1) (emphasis added). Although the draft Model Penal Code included a provision which defined less culpable mental states as fully encompassed within its definition of “purposely” (what the Kentucky Penal Code refers to as intentional conduct in an identical definition),2 the General Assembly did not adopt this subsection, and defined the culpable mental states so that a given act is undertaken either intentionally or knowingly or wantonly or recklessly.3 The trial court should only instruct the jury on both intentional murder and second-degree manslaughter, offenses with conflicting mental states, when the evidence presents *288a question as to whether a given act was accomplished intentionally or wantonly. However, when all of the evidence proves beyond a reasonable doubt that someone acted intentionally, as is the case here, the requirements of another competing mental state, as a matter of law, cannot be established.
In Hudson v. Commonwealth, Ky., 979 S.W.2d 106, 110 (1998), we stated that evidence of the mental state connected with a criminal act may be inferred from examining the results of that act:
Intent to kill can be inferred from the extent and character of a victim’s injuries. Further, because a person is presumed to intend the logical and probable consequences of his conduct, “a person’s state of mind may be inferred from actions preceding and following the charged offense.
Id. (citations deleted); See also McGinnis v. Commonwealth, Ky., 875 S.W.2d 518, 524 (1994). Some crimes cannot rationally be viewed as the product of wanton acts because the tangible results of those crimes demonstrate the absurdity of defining certain actions within the scope of risky behavior contemplated by the Kentucky Penal Code’s definition of wantonly. See, Moore v. Commonwealth, Ky., 771 S.W.2d 34, 37 (1989) (victim was pushed down an embankment, shot at and missed, and then shot in the head four times including a contact wound to the top of the head); Foster v. Commonwealth, Ky., 827 S.W.2d 670, 677 (1991) (five victims were brutally killed over a period of four hours, each shot at close range, stabbed repeatedly, crushed by a car, and in some instances burned, then left for dead at three separate locations throughout the city); Halvorsen v. Commonwealth, Ky., 730 S.W.2d 921 (1987) (“In view of the number, location, and lethal magnitude of the gunshots, it would have been unreasonable to give a wanton murder instruction.” Id. at 925);
Bess Horton’s murder was the product of a criminal act which cannot rationally be described as the product of a wanton or reckless mental state. Bess Horton’s murderer began by sawing open his victim’s throat with multiple passes of a knife, and finished, in the words of the majority opinion, by stabbing her “in the head with such force that the knife buried to the hilt in her right temple and the point of the blade protruded from her left temple.” A jury could not reasonably conclude that Bess Horton’s murderer’s decision to hack the victim’s throat apart and plunge his blade through her skull “created a risk” that Bess Horton would die and that the murderer either ignored the risk or was too drunk to appreciate the possibility that stabbing someone through the head can kill them. The murderer could only have sawed the victim’s throat open and buried his knife between her temples if “his conscious objective [was] to cause [her death].” KRS 501.020(1). The evidence in this case did not justify a second-degree manslaughter instruction because there is no evidence from which a reasonable juror could believe that Fields unintentionally killed Bess Horton.
The majority holds, however, that the evidence of voluntary intoxication presented by Fields entitles him to a second-degree manslaughter instruction as a matter of law. While incorrect, the majority’s conclusion is understandable given the haphazard and inconsistent voluntary intoxication jurisprudence in this state,4 *289particularly before the adoption of the Kentucky Penal Code.5 Prior to today’s majority opinion, however, the law in this state has always been that, even in intentional homicide cases presenting questions of voluntary intoxication, lesser included offenses requiring unintentional mental states should be given only where justified by the evidence. This was the case both early in our Commonwealth’s jurisprudence and just before the adoption of the Kentucky Penal Code. See, e.g. Marshall v. Commonwealth, 141 Ky. 222, 132 S.W. 139 (1910) (Defendant’s murder conviction for decapitating his former girlfriend with a razor affirmed despite trial court’s refusal to instruct on lesser included offenses); Harris v. Commonwealth, 183 Ky. 542, 209 S.W. 509, 511 (1919) (No reversible error where the trial court refused to instruct on manslaughter in light of evidence showing the defendant purchased bullets for his pistol one afternoon, shot his wife, then bought more bullets and “fired several more shots into her lifeless body.” Id.); Weick v. Commonwealth, 201 Ky. 632, 258 S.W. 90, 93 (1924) (No error in refusing to instruct on manslaughter where defendant laid in wait for his victim to ride by on the victim’s bicycle and shot him once with a tifie and twice with a pistol); Richards v. Commonwealth, Ky., 517 S.W.2d 237, 240 (1975) (Conviction affirmed despite failure to instruct on voluntary manslaughter because “[i]n the case now before us there was no evidence of sudden heat of passion, sudden affray, or provocation. Therefore, Richards was not entitled to an instruction on voluntary manslaughter regardless of his drunkenness at the time he shot Carter.” Id.); Elmore v. Commonwealth, Ky., 520 S.W.2d 328, 331 (1975) (Conviction under voluntary man*290slaughter instruction given as lesser included offense in murder indictment reversed because “the giving of a voluntary manslaughter instruction is proper only in those instances where there is evidence that will support the giving of the instruction.” Id.). After the adoption of the Kentucky Penal Code, the law regarding when to instruct on lesser included offenses remained the same. See Jewell v. Commonwealth, Ky., 549 S.W.2d 807, 814 (1977); Salisbury v. Commonwealth, Ky. App., 556 S.W.2d 922, 925 (1977) (Conviction under voluntary manslaughter instruction given as lesser included offense to murder affirmed because “in addition to the evidence of intoxication, there is evidence that the shooting occurred in sudden affray or sudden heat of passion.” Id.); Slaughter v. Commonwealth, Ky., 744 S.W.2d 407, 413 (1988) (Murder conviction affirmed despite trial court’s refusal to instruct upon wanton murder and second degree manslaughter because defendant’s defense that another person committed the murder presented no evidence justifying an instruction which rer quired a wanton mental state); McGuire v. Commonwealth, Ky., 885 S.W.2d 931, 935 (1994) (“[Prior dicta implying that lesser included offenses should never be given when the trial court instructed on voluntary intoxication as a defense to an intent crime] is not correct where the' evidence presents lesser included or other offenses involving wantonness or recklessness as a culpable mental state, because voluntary intoxication is not then a defense.” Id at 935 (emphasis added)).
Today’s majority opinion gives birth to a new principle of law that every intentional homicide case in which sufficient evidence is presented to justify a voluntary intoxication instruction pursuant to KRS 501.080 also involves questions of wantonness, and the jury must be instructed on second-degree manslaughter. I simply do not agree with this conclusion for a number of reasons.
First, the majority’s holding relies on inadequate precedential support when it cites to this Court’s opinion in Slaven v. Commonwealth, Ky., 962 S.W.2d 845 (1997) to support its conclusion that a trial court commits reversible error by failing to instruct on second-degree manslaughter as a lesser included offense to an intentional homicide prosecution when the evidence supports a voluntary intoxication instruction. Notwithstanding the fact that the language of Slaven does not reach as far as today’s majority opinion,6 Slaven’s prec-edential value is no greater than the authorities upon which it relies. A close examination of those authorities reveals that Slaven either overlooked the precedent contrary to its holding or intended to change the law in this area by silently overruling precedent suggesting that the decision of whether to instruct on lesser included offenses in intoxication cases requires examination of the evidence presented. It appears to me that the first possibility is the more probable, and I view Slaven as an aberration rather than a watershed change.
The only case cited in Slaven is Meadows v. Commonwealth, Ky., 550 S.W.2d 511, 513 (1977), which was decided twenty *291years before. Three years before Slaven, this Court decided McGuire, supra and reaffirmed the principle that the trial court should give no instructions on lesser included offenses unless they are justified by the evidence. Despite the fact that the majority today cites Slaven for a conclusion squarely contradicted by our holding in McGuire, the Court has made no attempt to distinguish or address McGuire.
The authority Slaven did address, Meadows, supra, is not properly cited as authority for the proposition that lesser included offenses should be given in these cases even if not warranted by the evidence. In Meadows, the defendant claimed he accidentally discharged his shotgun and killed the victim, and also alleged that he had consumed alcohol and medicine prior to the shooting. The trial court instructed the jury on intentional homicide and, apparently, on the lesser degrees of wanton and reckless homicide, but did not feel that the evidence warranted a voluntary intoxication instruction, and this Court agreed. However, because the evidence relating to accidental shooting justified instructions on wanton and reckless homicide, the majority remarked in dicta: “The only tangible effect the evidence of intoxication would have had was to reduce the offense from intentional homicide to wanton or reckless homicide.” Meadows, supra at 513. In other words, the trial court in Meadows felt that there was sufficient evidence of wanton or reckless conduct, absent any consideration of the defendant’s intoxication, to justify instructions on lesser offenses, and, in that context, a separate voluntary intoxication instruction as a defense to intentional homicide would have only directed the jury to consider the lesser offenses. In the process of laundering the holding in Meadows through Slaven, this rationale is discarded, and, for the first time in Kentucky jurisprudence, this Court tells the trial courts of this state to give instructions which are not warranted by the evidence.
Second, the only other authority cited in Slaven, the 1974 Commentary to the voluntary intoxication statute, KRS 501.080, explicitly contradicts the conclusion reached by today’s court. The Commentary reads:
In its definition of “wantonness,” KRS 501.020 requires as an element of this culpable mental state an awareness by the actor of a substantial and unjustifiable risk that a result will occur or that a circumstance exists. This element of “awareness” is used to distinguish “wantonness” from “recklessness.” In making this distinction KRS 501.020 expressly provides that “unawareness” of a risk, if caused solely by voluntary intoxication, does not preclude a showing of “wantonness. ” Id (emphasis added).
The Commentary indicates that while voluntary intoxication alone does not constitute wantonness, a defendant who has failed to recognize a risk by virtue of his intoxication cannot defend against a claim of wantonness on the basis of his intoxication and that the evidence could still show he was acting wantonly as defined at KRS 501.020. “Does not preclude” is not synonymous with “constitutes,” and the Commentary to KRS 501.080 is hardly support for the majority’s conclusion to the contrary.
Third, the majority mutates the definition of “wantonly” in KRS 501.020(3) and concludes, apparently as a matter of law, that a defendant who persuades a jury that he was sufficiently intoxicated to negate the intent element of intentional murder, has demonstrated “the element of wantonness necessary to convict of second-degree manslaughter.” In other words, the majority opinion misinterprets the parallel definition of “wantonly” in the third sentence of KRS 501.020(3) to require only voluntary intoxication. The majority discovers this incomplete definition by deleting the language “A person who creates such a risk but is unaware thereof’ from the last sentence of KRS 501.020(3), quoting the remainder of that sentence out of *292context, and concluding that “[t]he definition of ‘wantonly^ provides that a person who acts wantonly ‘solely by reason of voluntary intoxication also acts wantonly with respect thereto.’ “
This redefinition ignores KRS 501.030’s requirement that a voluntary act which creates certain risks accompany a culpable mental state. A correct reading of the third sentence of KRS 501.020(3) must recognize that it is only operative in situations where someone’s behaviors objectively and independently of intoxication would create the types of risks contemplated in the previous sentences. The language in KRS 501.020(3) concerning voluntary intoxication merely serves to “eliminate, in this one situation, the distinction between the mental states of “wantonly’ and ‘recklessly,’ “ by:
[B]ring[ing] into play a special definition of “wantonly,” one that eliminates the need for proof of awareness and conscious disregard of risk. The intoxicated actor who fails to perceive risk that would have been perceived by a sober actor is treated as though he was aware of and consciously disregarded the unperceived risk.
Lawson and Fortune, Kentucky Criminal Law, Section 2-2(d)(3) (LEXIS 1998). See also Commentary to KRS 501.080 (quoted above). Today’s majority also overlooks Todd v. Commonwealth, Ky., 716 S.W.2d 242 (1986), where this Court focused on the statutory language of KRS 501.030(3) and correctly explained the interaction of the sentences in that subsection: “A person who creates such a risk [a substantial and unjustifiable risk that a result will occur] but is unaware thereof solely by reason of voluntary intoxication also acts wantonly with respect thereto.” Id. at 246 (brackets in original). We held in Todd that a proper reading of the last sentence of KRS 501.020(3) required two conditions precedent to a finding of wantonness: (1) Conduct creating the type of risk defined in this subsection, and (2) obliviousness of that risk by virtue of voluntary intoxication. Today’s majority jettisons (1) and labels as wanton conduct any voluntary intoxication which is sufficient to excuse an intent crime.
Finally, I dispute the majority’s conclusion: “[I]f a defendant was so voluntarily intoxicated that he killed another without the intent to do so, the fact of his voluntary intoxication, itself, constituted the element of wantonness necessary to convict of second-degree manslaughter.” In other words, the majority holds that any defendant who kills another person after voluntarily ingesting quantities of alcohol or other controlled substances to the point where he is too intoxicated to form the intent necessary to commit intentional murder has, as a matter of law, committed second-degree manslaughter. KRS 507.040 defines second-degree manslaughter: “A person is guilty of manslaughter in the second degree when, including, but not limited to, the operation of a motor vehicle, he wantonly causes the death of another person.”
The Court holds today that any person who drinks a large number of beers and takes some “horse tranquilizers” creates a “substantial and unjustifiable risk [that he will kill someone] ... of such nature and degree that disregard thereof constitutes a gross deviation from the standard of conduct that a reasonable person would observe in the situation.” KRS 501.020(3). While I see no reason to applaud gross substance abuse, I cannot conclude, especially in the absence of any evidence submitted on this issue at trial, that voluntary intoxication, standing alone, creates a risk that the abuser will kill someone and that this risk is sufficient to justify a second-degree manslaughter instruction. KRS 501.060(3); See, e.g. Lofthouse v. Commonwealth, 13 S.W.3d 236 (Ky.2000). The jury did not find that Fields’ risky substance abusive behavior buried a knife between Bess Horton’s temples. They determined that Fields himself committed murder and they did so in the face of instructions which properly informed them they could *293acquit Fields if they felt he was too intoxicated to know what he was doing. There was nothing wanton about Fields’ crime and the trial court properly declined to give instructions not warranted by the evidence. I cannot agree with the majority opinion’s conclusion that an intentional crime (murder) somehow sublimates into an unintentional crime (second-degree manslaughter) when a defendant is too intoxicated to form the intent to commit the intentional crime. The trial court correctly decided it was unnecessary to instruct the jury on second-degree manslaughter.
I would affirm the conviction.
GRAVES, WINTERSHEIMER, JJ„ join this dissent.

. "At common law a charge of murder embraced all the lower degrees of culpable homicide” and “the jury may find a defendant guilty of a lesser-included offense, even though there is no evidence to support the lesser than the greater crime....” Smith v. Commonwealth, Ky., 737 S.W.2d 683, 688-89 (1987).

. Model Penal Code Section 2.02(5):
Substitutes for Negligence, Recklessness and Knowledge. When the law provides that negligence suffices to establish an element of an offense, such element also is established if a person acts purposely, knowingly or recklessly. When recklessness suffices to establish an element, such element also is established if a person acts purposely or knowingly. When acting knowingly suffices to establish an element, such element also is established if a person acts purposely.

. See Robert G. Lawson and William H. Fortune, Kentucky Criminal Law, Section 2-2(c)(2) (LEXIS 1998) for a discussion of inferences which can be drawn from the General Assembly's failure to include Model Penal Code Section 2.02(7) in the final legislation.

. Since the time of the American Civil War, Kentucky courts have recognized that evidence of voluntary intoxication was somehow significant to homicide prosecutions. The exact role of evidence of voluntary intoxication, however, has been far from consistent. At times courts have held that evidence of voluntary intoxication requires the trial court to instruct the jury as to the lesser included offense of voluntary manslaughter because evidence of voluntary intoxication may influence a jury’s determination of the presence of malice aforethought. See, e.g., Smith v. Commonwealth, 62 Ky. 224, 1 Duvall 224, 227 (1864); Golliher v. Commonwealth, Ky., 63 Ky. 163, 2 Duvall 163, 165 (1865); Blimm v. Commonwealth, 70 Ky. 320, 7 Bush 320, 325 (1870); Shannahan v. Commonwealth, 71 Ky. *289463, 8 Bush 463, 470-71 (1871); Rogers v. Commonwealth, Ky., 96 Ky. 24, 27 S.W. 813, 814 (1894); Bishop v. Commonwealth, 109 Ky. 558, 60 S.W. 190 (1901); Pash v. Commonwealth, 146 Ky. 390, 142 S.W. 700 (1912); Graham v. Commonwealth, 200 Ky. 161, 252 S.W. 1012 (1923); Shorter v. Commonwealth, 252 Ky. 472, 67 S.W.2d 695 (1934); Horn v. Commonwealth, 292 Ky. 587, 167 S.W.2d 58 (1943) Other times, the courts have held that evidence of voluntary intoxication cannot reduce a crime from murder to manslaughter, but should be considered by the jury in determining whether to sentence the defendant to death or life imprisonment. Harris v. Commonwealth, 183 Ky. 542, 209 S.W. 509 (1919); Thomas v. Commonwealth, 196 Ky. 539, 245 S.W. 164 (1922); Perciful v. Commonwealth, 212 Ky. 673, 279 S.W. 1062 (1926); Lawson v. Commonwealth, 222 Ky. 614, 1 S.W.2d 1060 (1928).

. It is possible that some of the lingering confusion concerning the state of the law of voluntary intoxication in the Commonwealth stems from the hybrid of ill-defined statutory and common law of homicide within which the "defense” developed:
In 1974, before adoption of the Penal Code, Kentucky had nearly a dozen homicide crimes. Most were narrow in scope (e.g. lynching and mob violence, killing through the negligent operation of a motor vehicle, homicide through an act of abortion, etc.) and duplicative of the coverage provided by the more broadly defined homicides of murder, voluntary manslaughter, and involuntary manslaughter. Involuntary manslaughter was defined by statute; statutes on murder and voluntary manslaughter prescribed penalties for conviction, but left definition of the offenses to common law sources and principles.
Murder was defined as a killing with malice aforethought. The words "malice” and "aforethought” were unhelpful if not confusing; the exact nature of the offense was unclear. The following homicides constituted murder before the adoption of the Code; intentional killings, "depraved heart” killings, and felony murder. Voluntary manslaughter was defined as a killing in sudden affray or sudden heat of passion upon provocation calculated to excite passion beyond control. Limited to intentional killings, voluntary manslaughter operated essentially to mitigate penalties that would ordinarily have been imposed for conviction of intentional murder. The statute on involuntary manslaughter created two degrees of the offense, one with felony penalties (below those for voluntary manslaughter) and one with misdemeanor penalties. The felony was defined as a killing with "wanton indifference to life” while the misdemeanor was defined as a killing through "reckless conduct.”
Robert G. Lawson and William H. Fortune, Kentucky Criminal Law, Section 8-1 (a) (LEXIS 1999) (footnotes deleted).

. Today’s majority describes the interaction between the voluntary intoxication defense and lesser included offense instructions in stating:
... the defense of voluntary intoxication does not authorize an acquittal if the jury finds the defendant was so intoxicated that he could not form the requisite intent to commit murder. Rather, its effect is to reduce the offense from the intentional crime of murder (or first-degree manslaughter) to the wanton crime of second-degree manslaughter.
In Slaven v. Commonwealth, Ky., 962 S.W.2d 845 (1997), the Court’s language was less rigid and the holding was that the jury’s belief in the intoxication defense “could reduce the offense from intentional homicide to wanton homicide....” Id. at 857 (emphasis added). While the Slaven version can be interpreted consistently with McGuire v. Commonwealth, Ky., 885 S.W.2d 931 (1994), today’s majority opinion cannot.