Jones v. Commonwealth
Kentucky Supreme Court · 2010-09-23 · cited 35×
The case concerned two consolidated appeals challenging the constitutionality of KRS 532.043(5), which authorized sentencing courts to revoke a five-year period of conditional discharge imposed on certain sex offenders after they completed incarceration or parole. The appellants argued that the statute improperly assigned an executive function—supervision and revocation of post-release conditions—to the judicial branch, violating the separation of powers under Sections 27 and 28 of the Kentucky Constitution. The Supreme Court of Kentucky held that revocation of this form of conditional discharge is an executive power akin to parole revocation, and therefore the statute's delegation of that authority to courts was unconstitutional. The Court reversed the revocation orders in both cases, though it noted the underlying disputes were moot because the appellants had already served their reincarceration periods. The decision rested on distinctions between probation (judicial), parole (executive), and the specific post-sentence conditional discharge created by the statute.