Court Opinion

ID: 9681507
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 07:51:46.068524+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:17:34.229203
License: Public Domain

LEIBSON, Justice,
dissenting.
Respectfully, I dissent.
I continue to believe that mental state of the accused determines the degree of homicide. When the accused claims self-defense, “wantonly” (KRS 507.040) and “intentionally” are not mutually exclusive mental states.
When the perceived need to kill results from a subjective, unreasonable, wantonly held belief that it is necessary, the instructions and results in this case are appropriate to the circumstances.
As stated in my Dissent, Baker v. Commonwealth, Ky., 677 S.W.2d 876, 880 (1984), we should return to Blake v. Commonwealth, Ky., 607 S.W.2d 422 (1980), which correctly analyzed the situation.