McDaniel v. Kentucky
Annotate this CaseIn May and July of 2012, Jonathan McDaniel, David DeShields, and John Martin, all inmates at the State Reformatory in LaGrange, and all serving sentences for felony sex offenses, filed very similar pro se motions at their respective trial courts challenging the legality of the conditional discharge requirement of KRS 532.043, and sought to have the discharge period deleted from their sentences. All three trial courts denied the motion, and all three defendants appealed. The Supreme Court granted defendants' joint motion for discretionary review to address their concern that the Court of Appeals inappropriately characterized their trial court motions as having been brought pursuant to Kentucky Rule of Criminal Procedure (RCr) 11.42, and to address the Court's own concern that the Court of Appeals, "perhaps in its eagerness to try to calm the waters after the 2011 amendment to KRS 532.043," inappropriately ruled on a question not properly before it. After that review, the Court affirmed the Court of Appeals' ultimate affirmance of the trial court rulings denying relief, but "vacated" the Court of Appeals' opinion except as to the issue of whether Martin's and McDaniel's guilty pleas were subject to appellate review.
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