Request By:
Honorable Albert W. Spenard
Commonwealth's Attorney
Fourth Judicial District
Madisonville, Kentucky 42431
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Rodney V. Tapp, Assistant Attorney General
Reference is made to our letter dated June 24, 1977, concerning our desire to delay the rendition of our opinion on the application of KRS 533.060 (1) until the Supreme Court of Kentucky had been given an opportunity to express its opinion on the question in the case, then pending, of Blondell v. Commonwealth, Ky., 556 S.W.2d 682 (1977). Your question was whether KRS 533.060 (1), which denies the grant of probation or conditional discharge to persons who have been convicted of felonies involving certain weapons, could properly be applied to those who committed offenses prior to July 19, 1976, the effective date of KRS 533.060 (1), but whose convictions did not occur until after that date.
The opinion of the Supreme Court in Blondell v. Commonwealth, Ky., 556 S.W.2d 682, 683 (1977), has answered your question in the negative:
The only question presented by this appeal that is worthy of discussion is whether KRS 533.060 (1) operates as an ex post facto law when it is applied to Blondell. We answer the question in the affirmative.
On September 30, 1976 Blondell was found guilty of raping and sodomizing a female on May 22, 1976 through the use of forcible compulsion, contrary to KRS 510.040 and 510.070. . . . .
The Court went on to hold that Bondell was entitled to have the trial court consider his application for probation on the merits because he committed offenses prior to the effective date of KRS 533.060 (1). The Kentucky Court of Appeals had previously reached the same conclusion in the case of Wethington v. Commonwealth, Ky. App., 549 S.W.2d 530 (1977).
Unless you have additional questions or require our further comment on this question, we feel that the Blondell case is dispositive of your question.