Court Opinion

ID: 9749335
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-27 16:34:23.03985+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:25:46.759157
License: Public Domain

CUNNINGHAM, J.,
dissenting:
The ruling of the majority today deprives both the Commonwealth and a criminal defendant of the means of correcting an illegal sentence after the time for the direct appeal has expired. Thus, it violates both the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and Section 14 of the Kentucky Constitution. Therefore, I respectfully dissent.
Civil Rule 60.02 and its case law progeny were never intended to open gates to endless litigation. Finality is crucial. And I agree that, as late as 2008, we reasserted that this provision is not intended to “relit-igate previously determined issues.” Baze v. Commonwealth, 276 S.W.3d 761, 765 (Ky.2008). However, even in the constrictive language of Baze and other cases bearing on point, we allowed that the doctrine of coram nobis, codified by CR 60.02, was available to deal with “judgment errors which had not been heard or litigated.”
We have judgment error in this case, and it has not been heard or litigated until this 60.02.
*492CR 60.02 states in part that “a court may, upon such terms as are just, relieve a party or his legal representative from the final judgment, order, or proceeding upon ... mistake, inadvertence, surprise, or excusable neglect.” Black’s Law DictionaRY (8th ed.2004) defines “inadvertence” as “[a]n accidental oversight; a result of carelessness.” That was exactly what happened here. Also, the action was taken by the Commonwealth within the one-year limitation required. Therefore, it seems clear to me that the relief being sought by the Commonwealth in this case clearly falls within the intent and purpose of CR 60.02.
I take serious issue with the majority’s statement that jail time credit is not part of the sentence. The short provision of KRS 532.120(3), which affords pre-trial jail credit toward time to be served, mentions the word “sentence” five times. Through this statutory command, jail credit is made part of the sentence. Visit any circuit court of the 120 counties of this Commonwealth and listen as the circuit judge pronounces sentence. In the same breath as the years of imprisonment are imposed, the amount of jail credit falls hard upon. The Doolan case, cited by the majority, requires jail credit to be in the judgment of sentencing.
It should be remembered that on this day the Commonwealth of Kentucky is seeking relief. My experience teaches me that, in most efforts, it will be a criminal defendant who is shorted jail time credit— sometimes affecting substantially his or her sentence. In many cases, such mistake or inadvertence is not discovered until the defendant is serving time and more than 30 days have elapsed. If the defendant is not allowed to utilize CR 60.02 to correct this illegal sentence, then he or she will be serving an unlawful sentence.43
I believe that both the Commonwealth and the defendant are in great need of this mechanism to correct an illegal sentence. It should not be complicated. We should narrowly hold that error in jail credit can be corrected through the use of CR 60.02.
Therefore, I respectfully dissent and would affirm.
SCOTT, J., joins this dissent.

. Arguably, a defendant could challenge the failure to give proper jail time credit in a habeas action pursuant to KRS 419.020. This action would have to wait until near the end of the sentence. There is some support for this. 39 C.J.S. Habeas Corpus § 174. However, it gets complicated. The parole eligibility date is computed from the sentence on the judgment at time of commitment. Therefore, the defendant may be deprived of an earlier release via parole because of the failure to give the appropriate jail credit. In any case, the Commonwealth would not, as here, have any recourse for correction.