Court Opinion

ID: 9749690
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-27 16:58:22.738316+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:35:39.789527
License: Public Domain

ABRAMSON, J.,
concurring:
I concur with Justice Noble’s cogent analysis but write separately to explain some of my own conclusions about so-called unanimous verdict cases involving superfluous or overly broad language in the jury instructions. Trial judges should not knowingly submit jury- instructions *465that are overly broad, but such instructions generally do not implicate the constitutional right to a unanimous verdict and thus would not constitute palpable error under the high standard adopted by this Court in Martin v. Commonwealth, 207 S.W.3d 1 (Ky.2007).
In Harp v. Commonwealth, 266 S.W.3d 813 (Ky.2008), this Court concluded that it was palpable error for a trial judge, in a case where the defendant was charged with multiple instances of conduct constituting the same criminal offense, to issue jury instructions containing no specific, distinguishing factors, ie., a series of identically-worded instructions. Harp, like most of the cases in which that particular instructional error arises, involved a young sexual abuse victim who could not remember precise dates but could testify to other facts surrounding each specific occurrence, thus allowing for instructions tailored to each occurrence. In Harp-type cases, the distinguishing factors among several instances of the same type of criminal conduct can include a myriad of things such as where the particular offense occurred, when it occurred in relation to some event in the victim’s life such as a birthday or school event, whether someone walked in on the event, how the victim or perpetrator was clothed as the time and whether the perpetrator made a specific comment or threat. In Harp, we urged trial courts to look carefully at the proof and craft instructions which would guide appropriately the ensuing jury deliberations, assuring that all jurors were focused on one specific instance about which they had heard evidence and that when they voted they were considering whether that particular instance of alleged criminal conduct had been proven beyond a reasonable doubt. Given the confusion which would flow from undifferentiated instructions, there was no difficulty in concluding that the identically-worded instructions in such cases can easily lead to a non-unanimous verdict and constitute palpable error.
The case before us presents a different problem. Instead of imprecise instructions that muddy the waters, we have very precise instructions that conform to the applicable law but are overly broad. The jury, in essence, is being “over-instructed” because they are given instructions that cover, yet go beyond, the case which they have just heard. The specific problem in these cases is there is no evidence whatsoever to support some portion of the instruction. Thus in this case there is no proof to support, for either of the two defendants, at least two of the ways in which one can attain persistent-felony offender status.
In Burnett v. Commonwealth, 31 S.W.3d 878 (Ky.2000), this Court concluded that an instruction on trafficking that contained superfluous language regarding possession of cocaine with intent to manufacture was unsupported by any evidence and interfered with the defendant’s right to a unanimous verdict. Finding the error adequately preserved, the Court concluded in a 4-3 decision that because of the constitutional requirement of a unanimous verdict, harmless error analysis did not apply. Realistically, where there is no evidence whatsoever to support the overly broad language, there is no real prospect of a non-unanimous verdict, regardless of whether the error is preserved or unpre-served. See Burnett, 31 S.W.3d at 884-85 (J. Graves dissenting) (“The total lack of evidence supporting an alternate theory does, not require reversal.”) Thus, our holding today undermines Burnett’s conclusion that harmless error analysis cannot apply due to a unanimous verdict violation. The immediate question before us, however, is whether, where the error is unpre-served, overly broad instructions result in palpable error.
*466In Martin, supra, this Court went beyond the language of Kentucky Rule of Criminal Procedure (RCr) 10.26 to amplify the palpable error standard with language drawn from the federal cases, particularly United States v. Cotton, 535 U.S. 625, 122 S.Ct. 1781, 152 L.Ed.2d 860 (2002), a case in which the United States Supreme Court found no plain error where the indictment failed to set forth a necessary element of the offense, i.e., the quantity of drugs. The Cotton Court applied the four-step test adopted in United States v. Olano, 507 U.S. 725, 118 S.Ct. 1770, 123 L.Ed.2d 508 (1999) which requires (1) error (2) that is plain and that (3) affects substantial rights. Even if those three factors are present, relief is available only if (4) the error “seriously affects the fairness, integrity or public reputation of judicial proceedings.” Id. at 732. Chief Justice Rehnquist, writing for a unanimous Supreme Court in Cotton, concluded that the omission did not satisfy the fourth element of the Olano test. In his words, “the real threat to the ‘fairness, integrity, or public reputation of judicial proceedings’ would be if respondents, despite the overwhelming and un-controverted evidence that they were involved in a vast drug conspiracy, were to receive a sentence prescribed for those committing less substantial drug offenses because of an error that was never objected to at trial.” Id. at 1783.
While federal cases regarding “plain error”, the federal counterpart to our palpable error, are not binding on us and this Court is free to make its own determinations regarding palpable error in Kentucky, the federal cases applying plain error analysis are worth consideration, particularly given that federal law is the origin of the “fairness, integrity or public reputation of judicial proceedings” language adopted by this Court in Martin. In federal cases, jury instructions that omit an element of the crime can constitute plain error. See., e.g., United States v. Rossomando, 144 F.3d 197 (2d Cir.1998) (plain error in mail fraud case where instruction omitted language and posed “genuine risk” that jury could find guilt even if it believed defendant did not contemplate or intend to harm the victim); United States v. Haywood, 363 F.3d 200 (3d Cir.2004) (failure to instruct jury that knowledge of obliterated serial number was element of crime of possession of firearm with obliterated serial number was plain error). But see United States v. Feliciano, 223 F.3d 102 (2d Cir.2000) (even if trial court committed plain error in failing to instruct jury on elements of narcotics conspiracy and even if that affected defendant’s substantial rights, no relief because of the abundant evidence in the record that defendants engaged in extensive drug trafficking; under these circumstances, omission, if any, could not seriously affect the fairness, integrity or public reputation of judicial proceedings). Similarly, plain error can occur when the jury is not instructed that it can only convict on one of two offenses. See, e.g., United States v. Brown, 996 F.2d 1049 (10th Cir.1993) (plain error where jury was not instructed that it could not convict defendant of both theft of goods in interstate commerce and possession of those same goods).
My research reveals only one case where jury instructions were deemed plain error because of the potential for a non-unanimous verdict but, significantly, the instructions were not overly broad; rather, they failed to contain the requisite detail under federal jury instruction standards. In United States v. Adkinson, 135 F.3d 1363 (11th Cir.1998), following a five-month bank fraud trial in which the court committed numerous reversible errors, the judge then submitted jury instructions *467which did not identify the particulars of the scheme to defraud on which the defendants were being prosecuted. Because the jury heard evidence of 227 different overt acts and it was impossible to know which of those acts the various jurors focused on in finding a scheme to defraud, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals found that the defendants’ rights to a unanimous verdict were violated and that constituted plain error.3
By contrast, several courts have concluded that overly broad jury instructions do not constitute plain error. See, e.g., United States v. Leahy, 445 F.3d 634, 655 (3d Cir.2006) (no plain error in giving “intangible property rights” jury instruction in bank fraud prosecution when the government did not present any evidence supporting such instruction or allege an “intangible rights” theory because error did not prejudice defendants or diminish their rights; single erroneous jury instruction, could not have been “possible basis for the jury’s verdict” where financial fraud was also instructed on and evidence supported that theory); United States v. Newsom, 452 F.3d 593 (6th Cir.2006) (no plain error in overbroad jury instruction regarding uses that could be made of FRE 404(b) evidence because one of the four means of using 404(b) (to prove intent) was supported by the evidence); United States v. Hall, 312 F.3d 1250 (11th Cir.2002) (in prosecution for distribution and receipt of child pornography by computer through interstate or foreign commerce, instruction requiring a visual depiction which is, “or appears to be,” of a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct was plain error, but the error did not affect defendant’s substantial rights and affirming the conviction would not seriously affect the fairness, integrity or public reputation of judicial proceedings; the evidence established that the children depicted in the pictures admitted at trial were actual children and no one ever claimed, or even hinted, that the images were of virtual children).
In this case, the excess language in the jury instructions regarding ways in which one can attain persistent felony offender status was error but not palpable error for much the same reason there was no plain error in the above-cited federal cases: the jurors would have to conjure up evidence to arrive at a verdict based on the excess language. As the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit noted in Leahy, supra, the excess language regarding a theory unsupported by the evidence could not have been “a possible basis for the jury’s verdict.” 445 F.3d at 665. This, of course, distinguishes this type of case from the Harp-type case where the failure to give incident-specific instructions creates significant confusion about the basis or bases for the jury’s verdicts.
Moreover, for those who believe that jurors might be sufficiently confused by overly broad instructions that the jury would somehow “rely” on evidence that does not exist, I would further suggest that the “fairness, integrity or public reputation of judicial proceedings” is not impugned by such overly broad instructions. Where there is sufficient proof for a theory or theories properly included in the instruction(s), the additional presence of a theory in the instructions unsupported by any evidence does not alter that first fact; in other words, there is still sufficient evidence of a criminal act and the fairness, integrity and public confidence in the proceeding is not undermined by excess language even if the jury could have, in some extraordinarily strained, highly unlikely way misused that language. On this score, I would echo Chief Justice Rehnquist’s *468words for a unanimous Supreme Court in Cotton quoted supra, albeit in a different context. The real threat to fairness, integrity and public opinion of these particular proceedings would come from overturning a verdict, where the instructions were sufficiently specific and the evidence was sufficient for conviction, based on a unanimous verdict theory that requires us to assume wholly implausible, if not completely irrational, behavior on the part of a juror or jurors.

. Adkinson is obviously analogous to our decision in Harp, 266 S.W.3d at 813.