Maynes v. Commonwealth

• Decision Date: 22 March 2012
• Docket Number: No. 2010–SC–000681–DG.,2010–SC–000681–DG.
• Parties: Desean MAYNES, Appellant, v. COMMONWEALTH of Kentucky, Appellee.
• Court: United States State Supreme Court — District of Kentucky

361 S.W.3d 922

Desean MAYNES, Appellant,

v.COMMONWEALTH of Kentucky, Appellee.

No. 2010–SC–000681–DG.

Supreme Court of Kentucky.

March 22, 2012.

Daniel T. Goyette, Louisville Metro Public Defender, Bruce P. Hackett, Chief Appellate Defender, Office of the Louisville Metro Public Defender, Louisville, KY, for appellant.

Jack Conway, Attorney General of Kentucky, James Hays Lawson, Assistant Attorney General, Office of Criminal Appeals, Office of the Attorney General, Frankfort, KY, for appellee.

Opinion of the Court by Justice ABRAMSON.

Kentucky Revised Statute (KRS) 23A.205 provides that persons convicted of a crime in Circuit Court shall pay court costs of $100.00. The statute allows court costs to be waived for “poor persons,” as that term is defined in KRS 453.190(2), the in forma pauperis statute. KRS 31.110 provides that “needy persons” facing serious criminal charges are entitled to representation by an attorney at public expense. Should “needy” persons under the latter statute automatically be immune from the court costs imposed by KRS 23A.205? The Court of Appeals said they should not and upheld an order of the Jefferson Circuit Court imposing court costs on Desean Maynes. We accepted Maynes's motion for discretionary review to consider the interplay of these statutes, and we now affirm. Historically and under our current statutory scheme, there is no prohibition on imposition of court costs on a defendant who qualifies for the services of a public defender if the trial court determines under the circumstances of that particular case that the defendant is able to pay such costs.

RELEVANT FACTS

In August 2009, nineteen-year-old Desean Maynes was involved with others in a residential burglary in Louisville. Because Maynes's role in the offense appeared to be minor, the Commonwealth, in exchange for Maynes's guilty plea, offered to reduce the second-degree burglary charge to third-degree and to recommend that a three-year sentence be diverted for five years. Maynes accepted that offer, and at the plea colloquy in October 2009 the trial court approved the agreement subject to the condition, among others, that within six months Maynes pay the statutory court costs of $130.00 ¹ to the circuit court clerk. Both orally at the hearing and later by written motion, Maynes objected to the imposition of costs. He argued that in his present circumstances—he had been unemployed for some time and had recently become a father—even the modest burden of court costs would work a hardship. He also contended that having found him in need of a public defender, the court was required under KRS 31.110, to waive costs. The trial court summarily rejected those arguments, and Maynes appealed.

Upholding the trial court's ruling, a unanimous panel of the Court of Appeals dismissed Maynes's hardship argument by noting that he had not presented any evidence that he was disabled or otherwise incapable of holding a job. The Court also held that when read in conjunction with KRS 23A.205, KRS 31.211, and KRS 453.190, KRS 31.110 does not create the blanket immunity from costs Maynes attributes to it. Before this Court, Maynes does not challenge the trial court's implicit finding that he is capable of working, but he contends that the Court of Appeals erred either by disregarding the plain language of KRS 31.110 or by misconstruing the court costs statute's own immunity provision. We disagree with both contentions.

ANALYSIS

Statutory construction is a matter of law which requires de novo review by this Court. Hearn v. Commonwealth, 80 S.W.3d 432, 434 (Ky.2002) (citing Bob Hook Chevrolet Isuzu, Inc. v. Commonwealth, 983 S.W.2d 488 (Ky.1998). In construing statutes, our goal is to give effect to the intent of the General Assembly. We derive that intent, if at all possible, from the language the General Assembly chose, either as defined by the General Assembly or as generally understood in the context of the matter under consideration. Osborne v. Commonwealth, 185 S.W.3d 645 (Ky.2006). We presume that the General Assembly intended for the statute to be construed as a whole, for all of its parts to have meaning, and for it to harmonize with related statutes. Hall v. Hospitality Resources, Inc., 276 S.W.3d 775 (Ky.2008); Lewis v. Jackson Energy Cooperative Corporation, 189 S.W.3d 87 (Ky.2005). We also presume that the General Assembly did not intend an absurd statute or an unconstitutional one. Layne v. Newberg, 841 S.W.2d 181 (Ky.1992). Only if the statute is ambiguous or otherwise frustrates a plain reading, do we resort to extrinsic aids such as the statute's legislative history or the canons of construction. MPM Financial Group, Inc. v. Morton, 289 S.W.3d 193 (Ky.2009).

I. The Statutory Framework and Relevant History

We are confronted in this case with overlapping statutes pertaining to the rights of indigent defendants and the imposition of court costs. To understand how the different provisions relate, it is necessary to review briefly how they came to be.

A. The In Forma Pauperis Statute

Kentucky has long recognized that poor persons may be allowed to prosecute a civil action without paying costs or fees and with the assistance of appointed counsel. As originally enacted in 1798, the in forma pauperis statute provided that

every poor person who shall have cause of action against any person within this Commonwealth, shall have, by the discretion of the court before whom he would sue, writ or writs original, and writs of subpoena, according to the nature of his cause, nothing paying for the same; and that the said court shall direct their clerk to issue the necessary process, shall assign to him counsel learned in the laws, and appoint all other officers requisite and necessary to be had for the speed of the said suit to be had and made, who shall do their duties without any reward for their counsels, help and business in the same.

Act approved January 30, 1798—2 Litt. 39.

The direct predecessor of our current in forma pauperis statute, extending the status to defendants, was enacted at least as early as the 1850s, and appears at page 286 in the 1860 edition of the Revised Statutes for the Commonwealth compiled by Richard H. Stanton:

[A] poor person residing in this state may be allowed by a court to sue or defend a suit therein, without paying fees or cost, whereupon he shall have any counsel that the court may assign him, and from all officers all needful services and process, without any fees to them therefor, except what may be included in the costs recovered from the opposite party.

This statute became section 884 of Carroll's Kentucky Statutes (1894), which in turn, upon the 1942 adoption of the Kentucky Revised Statutes, became our current in forma pauperis statute, KRS 453.190. The statute now provides in relevant part that “[a] court shall allow a poor person residing in this state to file or defend any action or appeal therein without paying costs.”

B. The Right to Counsel and the Department of Public Advocacy Act

Although theoretically the in forma pauperis statute was and is available to criminal defendants, and although it was sometimes invoked by such defendants seeking to be relieved of the costs of an appeal, Braden v. Commonwealth, 277 S.W.2d 7 (Ky.1955); Clouse v. Glass Milling Co., 285 Ky. 690, 149 S.W.2d 9 (Ky.1941); Shipman v. Commonwealth, 264 Ky. 15, 94 S.W.2d 32 (Ky.1936), historically the right of an indigent criminal defendant to appointed counsel at trial was usually asserted under Section 11 of our Kentucky Constitution. Indeed, this Court has noted that that right, like the rights to trial by jury and confrontation, “is a matter of procedural due process, ... not substantive criminal law. The responsibility for determining when and whether counsel must be appointed for a criminal defendant in Kentucky is a function of the judicial department, not the legislature.” Fraser v. Commonwealth, 59 S.W.3d 448, 455–56 (Ky.2001) (citation omitted). By the late 1940s, Section 11 had been construed to require that a felony defendant appearing without counsel be advised of his right to counsel, and, upon an adequate showing of the defendant's inability to afford an attorney, that one be assigned to represent him. Calhoun v. Commonwealth, 301 Ky. 789, 193 S.W.2d 420 (1946); Gholson v. Commonwealth, 308 Ky. 82, 212 S.W.2d 537 (1948); Hart v. Commonwealth, 296 S.W.2d 212 (Ky.1956). See also Kentucky Rule of Criminal Procedure (RCr) 3.05(2).

Under the constitutional provision, the practice that developed was for representation to be provided to indigent felony defendants on an involuntary, uncompensated basis. Fraser, supra (describing the former practice and citing B. Deatherage, Comment, The Uncompensated Appointed Counsel System: A Constitutional and Social Transgression, 60 Ky. L.J. 710 (1971–72)). The trial court would assign the case to a member of the local bar, whose duties as an officer of the court were thought to include the pro bono representation of indigent defendants. Id. In 1963, however, the burdens on that system were markedly increased. In that year the United States Supreme Court held that the right to counsel provided by the Sixth Amendment to the federal Constitution applies to the states. Gideon v. Wainwright, 372 U.S. 335, 83 S.Ct. 792, 9 L.Ed.2d 799 (1963). That provision requires that not just indigent felony defendants, but any indigent defendant facing the possibility of incarceration, be represented by counsel at trial, Gideon; Argersinger v. Hamlin, 407 U.S. 25, 92 S.Ct. 2006, 32 L.Ed.2d 530 (1972), and on a first appeal as of right, Douglas v. California, 372 U.S. 353, 83 S.Ct. 814, 9 L.Ed.2d 811 (1963). This expansion of the class of eligible defendants, together with an increased population and rising crime rate, proved to be more than the appointed counsel system could bear. See Bradshaw v. Ball, 487 S.W.2d 294 (Ky.1972) (declaring the appointed counsel system...