Summary
The Supreme Court of Kentucky affirmed Johnathan Harris's convictions and thirty-year sentence, rejecting his challenges to the authority of a retired senior judge who presided over his trial. The court held that the Kentucky Constitution authorized the Chief Justice to assign a retired judge as a special judge during a judicial vacancy. It also held that second-degree persistent felony offender eligibility under KRS 532.080(2) is determined by the defendant's age at conviction, not at the time of the underlying offense, and rejected Harris's constitutional challenges.
Topics
Practice areas
Questions Presented
- Whether a retired senior judge temporarily assigned by the Chief Justice could constitutionally preside over Harris's trial after retiring from the elected circuit judgeship.
- Whether KRS 532.080(2) makes a defendant eligible for second-degree persistent felony offender status based on the defendant's age at conviction rather than age when the underlying felony was committed.
- Whether KRS 532.080(2) is facially or as applied unconstitutional because it permits a persistent felony offender enhancement when the defendant was under twenty-one when the underlying offense was committed.
Holdings
- A retired judge temporarily assigned by the Chief Justice under Kentucky Constitution section 110(5)(b) may constitutionally preside over a case pending in a vacant circuit judgeship; a defendant has no constitutional right to have the case presided over only by an elected or gubernatorially appointed judge.
- Under KRS 532.080(2), a defendant's age for second-degree persistent felony offender eligibility is measured when the defendant stands convicted or is adjudicated as a PFO, not when the underlying felony was committed.
- KRS 532.080(2) is not facially unconstitutional, and its application to Harris was not unconstitutional.
Key quotations
“Harris has no constitutional right to a judge selected under Sections 117 or 118 of the Constitution, as opposed to a judge assigned by the Chief Justice under Section 110” (226)
“By its plain wording, KRS 532.080(2) directs that the defendant's age for PFO purposes be examined at the time of his adjudication as a second-degree PFO” (227)
“It is not within the province of the Court to amend that policy.” (229)
Factual background
Harris was twenty years old when he allegedly committed the underlying offenses and was indicted on those charges. He turned twenty-one before he was indicted and convicted as a second-degree persistent felony offender. The trial was presided over by Geoffrey P. Morris, a retired senior judge who had previously been the elected judge of the Jefferson Circuit Court division and was temporarily assigned by the Chief Justice after retiring. Harris did not timely object to Morris's authority to preside.
Procedural history
A Jefferson County grand jury indicted Harris on kidnapping, rape, sodomy, assault, sexual abuse, wanton endangerment, and tampering charges. He was later indicted for second-degree persistent felony offender status. After a jury trial, he was convicted of most of the substantive charges and of being a second-degree PFO, acquitted of assault and tampering, and sentenced to thirty years. The circuit court denied his post-trial motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict or a new trial, and Harris appealed.