Carter v. Com., 79-SC-452-MR

• Decision Date: 01 September 1981
• Docket Number: No. 79-SC-452-MR,79-SC-452-MR
• Citation: 620 S.W.2d 320
• Parties: Lonnie Joe CARTER, Appellant, v. COMMONWEALTH of Kentucky, Appellee.
• Court: United States State Supreme Court — District of Kentucky

Page 320

620 S.W.2d 320

Lonnie Joe CARTER, Appellant, v. COMMONWEALTH of Kentucky, Appellee.

No. 79-SC-452-MR

Supreme Court of Kentucky.

Sept. 1, 1981.

Appeal from Christian Circuit Court; Stephen P. White, Jr., Judge, 79-CR-24.

Jack Emory Farley, Public Advocate, Kevin Michael McNally, Asst. Public Advocate, Frankfort, for appellant.

Robert F. Stephens, Atty. Gen., Robert V. Bullock, Asst. Atty. Gen., Frankfort, for appellee.

OPINION AND ORDER

In a memorandum opinion delivered May 13, 1980, this court affirmed the judgment of the Christian Circuit Court convicting Lonnie Joe Carter of burglary (KRS 511.040) and finding him a persistent felony offender (KRS 532.080). An appeal of that decision to the United States Supreme Court culminated in a reversal on the ground that the trial court had erred in declining to instruct the jury to the effect that a defendant's failure to testify shall be given no evidentiary weight. Carter v. Kentucky, --- U.S. ----, 101 S.Ct. 1112, 67 L.Ed.2d 241 (1981).

Accordingly, the judgment of the trial court is now reversed and the cause is remanded for a new trial.

PALMORE, C. J., and AKER, CLAYTON, LUKOWSKY, STEPHENSON and STERNBERG, JJ., sitting.

All concur.

Entered September 1, 1981.

/s/ John S. Palmore

Chief Justice