Request By:
Hon. Bill Klapheke
Barren County Attorney
Courthouse-Second Level
Glasgow, Kentucky 42141
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; David Russell Marshall, Assistant Attorney General
This is in reply to your letter dated September 29, 1978. In that letter you requested an Opinion from this Office concerning the construction of KRS 186.550 when read in conjunction with KRS 186.560. Specifically you asked whether a driver who has previously entered a plea of guilty to a charge of driving while intoxicated and who is subsequently convicted on a second charge of driving under the influence can have his driver's license revoked for one year pursuant to KRS 186.560(4). As this writer understands your inquiry, the basic question raised by your letter is whether a plea of guilty constitutes a conviction within the meaning of KRS 186.560(4) in view of the fact that KRS 186.550 apparently differentiates between a conviction, a plea and a forfeiture of bond. It is the studied Opinion of this Office, based on the following authorities, that a plea of guilty does, in fact, constitute a conviction for purposes of KRS 186.560(4).
In response to your inquiry perhaps it would be helpful to review the statutory provisions involved in this matter. First of all, KRS 186.550 provides in pertinent part that:
(1) The clerk of any court having jurisdiction over offenses committed under motor vehicle laws shall report upon a form furnished by the Department (of Transportation) the conviction, pleas or forfeiture of bond arising under motor vehicle laws to the Department within fifteen (15) days.
In addition, KRS 186.560 provides in pertinent part that:
(4) The revocation or denial of a license or the withdrawal of the privilege of operating a motor vehicle under this section shall be for a period of six (6) months, except that, if the same person has had one (1) previous conviction of any offense enumerated in subsection (1) of this section, regardless of whether the person's license was revoked because of the previous conviction, the period of the revocation, denial or withdrawal shall be one (1) year. . . .
The specific question which you have posed in your letter to this Office has never been resolved by the Supreme Court of Kentucky so far as we are aware. However, the following authorities are sufficiently analogous to be persuasive on the subject matter. In the case of Commonwealth v. Reynolds, Ky., 365 S.W.2d 853 (1963) the question was presented as to whether or not a finding of guilt upon a plea of guilty constituted a conviction of a felony within the meaning of CR 43.07 providing for impeachment of a witness by showing such conviction. In answering the question in the affirmative the court stated as follows with respect to the word "conviction,":
. . . the word generally means the ascertainment of defendant's guilt by some legal mode and an adjudication that the accused is guilty. This may be accomplished by a confession by the accused in open court, a plea of guilty or a verdict which ascertains and publishes the fact of guilty. We believe in the majority of those cases and in the majority of jurisdictions (although we have not counted noses), the word 'conviction' is not limited to a final judgment. (Emphasis added)
Furthermore, the U.S. Supreme Court has held that a plea of guilty is more than a confession which admits that the accused did the various acts. In fact the Supreme Court has stated that the entrance of a guilty plea when done in a knowing and intelligent manner is itself a conviction and nothing remains but to give judgment and determine punishment. Boykin v. Ala., 395 U.S. 238, 23 L. Ed. 2d 274, 89 S. Ct. 1709.
It is clear from the foregoing authorities that the entrance of a guilty plea by a defendant is equivalent to the actual conviction of that defendant in open court. It is therefore our Opinion that the entrance of a guilty plea constitutes a conviction within the meaning of KRS 186.550 providing for the reporting by the court to the Department of Transportation of conviction under the motor vehicle laws. For the same reason it is the Opinion of this Office that an adjudication of guilt (whether upon a guilty plea or after trial) constitutes a conviction for the purpose of revoking or denying the license of any operator of a motor vehicle for a period of one year as provided in KRS 186.560(4).
We hope the Office of the Attorney General has proved sufficiently helpful in this matter. If we can be of further assistance please feel free to contact us.