Court Opinion

ID: 9662805
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 23:18:40.528588+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:14:42.728346
License: Public Domain

LEIBSON, Justice,
dissenting.
Respectfully, I dissent. I concur in Justice Stumbo’s dissent. I write further to express views not covered in Justice Stumbo’s Dissenting Opinion.
The real issue here is whether the defendant is entitled, as KRS 532.025 contemplates, to an unimpaired and independent decision of the trial judge, when he is willing to plead guilty unconditionally. The penalty phase does not come within the scope of constitutionally protected right to a jury trial, for either the Commonwealth or the defendant. The statutory procedure provides for waiving the jury and contemplates no jury recommendation when this occurs.
*233In Ward v. Commonwealth, Ky., 695 S.W.2d 404, 408 (1985), I wrote, joined by Justice Vance, a Concurring Opinion, stating:
“While it is true that KRS 532.025(l)(b) provides that the jury shall ‘recommend a sentence for the defendant,’ the fact is when the jury votes the death penalty, it is much more than merely a recommendation. Unless the jury so recommends, the trial judge cannot impose such a sentence. If the jury so recommends, almost without exception the trial judge has followed the jury’s recommendation by imposing the death penalty.”
Few, if any judges in Kentucky, holding office at the will of the people by popular election, have failed to impose the death penalty after a jury recommendation that the death penalty be imposed. None to my recollection. The judge’s decision against the death penalty is impaired by a jury’s determination. The Majority Opinion never squarely confronts this issue. Defense counsel, at trial and on appeal, recognizing the ethical problem involved in questioning judicial integrity without proof, do no more than hint about it. Thus the Majority Opinion need not, and does not, confront it.
In Bevins v. Commonwealth, Ky., 712 S.W.2d 932 (1986), the defendant had plead guilty and waived the jury, and the court had imposed the death sentence. We affirmed against the claim that the appellant had not “knowingly, voluntarily and intelligently waived his fundamental constitutional right to a jury trial on the appropriate penalty,” Id. at 933, stating:
“... the fact that a jury recommendation of the death penalty is not binding on the judge certainly does not mean that it is of no consequence when the time comes for the judge to perform his sentencing function. There was no error in accepting the guilty plea and waiving jury trial of the penalty phase.” Id. at 934.
In Matthews v. Commonwealth, Ky., 709 S.W.2d 414 (1985), we stated:
“... we conclude from KRS 532.025 that the trial court’s function in imposing the death penalty following a jury verdict is different from its function where no jury is involved.” Id. at 423. "... the statutory scheme not only permits, but anticipates, that the trial court will play a separate and different role in sentencing in capital cases after the jury’s verdict has been received.” Id. at 423.
It is the statutory duty of trial judges in death penalty eases to exercise separate and independent judgment as to whether this is a case that merits the death penalty. It is, quite simply, against human nature to expect and demand an elected trial judge do so after a jury verdict imposing the death penalty.