Barbour v. Commonwealth

204 S.W.3d 606, 2006 Ky. LEXIS 197, 2006 WL 2454484
CourtKentucky Supreme Court
DecidedAugust 24, 2006
DocketNo. 2004-SC-000917-MR
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 204 S.W.3d 606 (Barbour v. Commonwealth) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Kentucky Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Barbour v. Commonwealth, 204 S.W.3d 606, 2006 Ky. LEXIS 197, 2006 WL 2454484 (Ky. 2006).

Opinion

Opinion of the Court by

Justice ROACH.

I. INTRODUCTION

Appellant was convicted of being a second-degree persistent felony offender and his sentences for attempted rape and kidnapping were enhanced. On appeal, he contends that the trial court erred (1) by refusing to allow mitigation evidence and (2) by requiring that he remain in leg shackles in front of the jury. Finding no error, we affirm Appellant’s convictions.

II. BACKGROUND

Appellant, Ricky Barbour, was convicted of first-degree attempted rape, kidnapping, and fourth-degree assault in November 1994. The jury recommended sentences of ten years for attempted rape, twenty years for kidnapping, and twelve months and a $500 fine for fourth-degree assault, all to run consecutively. The jury also found that Appellant was a second-degree persistent felony offender (“PFO II”), and recommended enhanced sentences of twenty years for the attempted rape and two hundred years for the kidnapping.

Appellant appealed his conviction to this Court as a matter of right, contending that the trial court erred in admitting evidence of two out-of-state felony convictions, which were used to prove his status as a PFO II. In May 1996, we reversed the PFO II conviction and sentence enhancement and remanded the matter to the Hart County Circuit Court for retrial of the PFO II charge. Barbour v. Commonwealth, NO.1995-SC-000078-MR (Ky. June 13,1996).

On remand, Appellant moved the trial court to bar retrial of the PFO II charge on the grounds of double jeopardy, collateral estoppel, res judicata, due process, and equal protection. The trial court denied Appellant’s motion. He then petitioned the Court of Appeals for a writ of prohibition, which was denied. We affirmed the decision of the Court of Appeals in 2001. Barbour v. Raikes, No.2000-SC-000249-MR (Ky. March 15, 2001).

After the failure of his writ petition, Appellant filed a pretrial motion pursuant to KRS 532.055(2)(b), the truth-in-sentencing statute, to allow him to introduce mitigation evidence at the retrial of the PFO II charge. Specifically, Appellant sought to introduce evidence of his post-conviction conduct, including proof of his completion of the Sexual Offender Treatment Program and other programs in prison, and evidence of his remorse. The trial court granted Appellant’s motion on November 12, 2002.

On July 30, 2004, Appellant filed a motion in limine to limit the retrial “to the PFO phase and not a full truth-in-sentencing proceeding.” On August 9, 2004, the trial court issued an order that granted the motion in limine but that also overruled the previous order allowing the introduction of mitigation evidence at the retrial. The trial court’s order stated in part: “Since the defense cannot introduce mitigation evidence, the Commonwealth is also barred from introducing victim impact evidence. The only issue on retrial is the PFO II charge.” On August 11, 2004, in a conference in the judge’s chambers immediately before the PFO retrial, Appellant mentioned the mitigation evidence issue again, and the judge confirmed that the [609]*609PFO proceeding would not include mitigation or victim impact evidence.

Also at this in-chambers meeting on August 11, 2004, Appellant objected to wearing leg shackles during the PFO proceeding. The Commonwealth responded by requesting that the shackles remain on Appellant. The judge ruled that the Appellant would remain in shackles, but offered to give the jury an admonition regarding the procedure. Appellant expressed concern that such an admonition would draw more attention to the shackles. Appellant then declined the judge’s offer to give the instruction, and no such instruction was given at the PFO proceeding.

The jury found Appellant guilty of being a PFO II and enhanced his sentences accordingly: the sentence for first-degree attempted rape conviction was enhanced from ten years to twenty years and the sentence for kidnapping was enhanced from twenty years to fifty years. The sentences were set to run consecutively for a total of seventy years imprisonment. Appellant appeals to this Court as a matter of right. Ky. Const. § 110(2)(b).

III. ANALYSIS

We address the issues in the order in which they appear in Appellant’s brief.

A. Mitigation Evidence

Appellant first claims that his motion to introduce mitigation evidence during the remanded PFO proceeding was denied improperly. Appellant contends such a ruling contravenes KRS 532.055, which provides for the introduction of mitigation evidence during sentencing, and Boone v. Commonwealth, 821 S.W.2d 813 (Ky. 1992), which held that “[wjhere ... a subsequent separate punishment phase is necessary because of reversible error committed only in that phase at the original trial, common sense dictates that the second jury must be told something about what transpired during the earlier guilt phase if they indeed are not ‘to sentence in a vacuum without any knowledge of the defendant’s past criminal record or other matters that might be 'pertinent to consider in the assessment of an appropriate penalty.’ Id. at 813 (quoting Commonwealth v. Reneer, 734 S.W.2d 794, 797 (Ky.1987)).

Although Appellant asks us to consider whether mitigation evidence is admissible during a separate, remanded PFO phase, this issue simply was not preserved for our review. While Appellant had at one time moved the trial court to allow the introduction of mitigation evidence under the truth-in-sentencing statute, we believe that request was effectively withdrawn when he subsequently filed a motion in limine requesting “that the retrial be limited to the PFO phase and not a full truth-in-sentencing proceeding.” The trial court granted Appellant’s motion in limine, thus overruling its previous order granting the motion to allow introduction of mitigation evidence and stating that neither Appellant nor the Commonwealth could introduce evidence under the truth-in-sentencing statute. Appellant’s current challenge to this ruling cannot be justified, given that it was the direct result of his own motion. Otherwise, we would be forced to allow Appellant to pursue inconsistent, if not mutually exclusive, positions, first by seeking to take advantage of the truth-in-sentencing statute, and later moving for its application to be barred. The trial court gave Appellant exactly what he requested in the later motion in limine: a retrial limited to the evidence related to the PFO charge, not a full truth-in-sentencing hearing. The effect of this ruling was that all other evidence, including mitigation evidence, could not be introduced.

[610]*610Appellant claims to have again raised the issue of the introduction of mitigation evidence subsequent to the trial court’s ruling that such evidence was not to be presented. Specifically, he cites statements by his attorney during the in-chambers conference immediately before the PFO proceeding. He claims that his attorney’s statements during that conference amounted to a reassertion of his earlier request to present mitigation evidence.

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204 S.W.3d 606, 2006 Ky. LEXIS 197, 2006 WL 2454484, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/barbour-v-commonwealth-ky-2006.