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Appellate Court Decisions |
| Supreme Court Opinion Approves Use of DNA in Court. |
 Frankfort, KY.
The Kentucky Supreme Court has issued an opinion by Justice Donald Wintersheimer approving
the admissibility of DNA evidence. Previous cases, while affirming the convictions,
declined to give blanket approval to DNA evidence, instead requiring a hearing on general
scientific acceptability be done in each case.Under the new decision, Fugate v. Commonwealth, the evidence is to be admitted, and any challenges to the procedure go to the weight of the evidence, not its admissibility. |
| The Sentence of "Life Without Parole" for Murderer/Rapist in 1972 Offends "Today's Standards of Decency," according to Justice Stumbo. |
 Frankfort, KY. So
what constitutes "cruel and unusual punishment?" The dissenting opinion of
the Supreme Court of Kentucky by Justice Janet Stumbo in the case of Land v.
Commonwealth, Ky., 986 S.W.2d 440 (1999) gives us some insight as to what at least two
justices think it is.Facts: On the evening of September 4, 1971, while armed with a shotgun, Michael Land forced Connie Lou Jones and Edwin Cochran Dorsey into his vehicle. He made Jones drive while he held a gun to Dorsey's head. He forced the victims to remove money from their billfolds and place it on the dashboard. He forced the victims out of the car, and, as Dorsey walked in front of Land, he pointed the shotgun at Dorsey's head and fired the weapon, killing Dorsey. Then he forced Jones back into the car, made her drive to a lake in Daviess County where he assaulted and raped her. He then forced her to drive back to the location of Dorsey's body where he assaulted and raped her again. Jones began to run from the car and Land shot her in the head. Jury Verdict and Sentence: In 1972, Michael Land was convicted and sentenced to life in prison for Murder, life without possibility of parole on each of two counts of Rape, twenty-one years on each of two counts of Shooting With Intent To Kill, and eighteen years for one count of Armed Robbery. Decision: Land's sentence was upheld by five of the seven Justices of Kentucky's Supreme Court. The other two Justices, in a dissenting opinion written by Justice Janet Stumbo, voted to reverse Land's sentence because they felt that a sentence of "life without parole for rape" was cruel and unusual and not "appropriate under today's standards of decency." Justice Stumbo wrote, "...I believe the continued imposition of a sentence of life without the possibility of parole for rape...constitutes cruel and unusual punishment...Although this sentence may not have offended our Commonwealth's standards of decency at the time it was imposed, I believe it does offend those standards today." |
