Case ID: ky-op_10/html/0540-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "Judge Hines:", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

Shelt Chambers v. Commonwealth.
    Plea of Former Acquittal.
    Evidence of a former acquittal in a criminal case is inadmissible where tbe plea of former acquittal had not been properly entered, the only record of such a plea being “This day came the defendant and entered a plea of not guilty and former acquittal.”
    APPEAL FROM MADISON CIRCUIT COURT.
    March 10, 1880.
   Opinion by

Judge Hines:

The judgment of the court below was reversed upon the supposition that the plea of former acquittal had been properly entered; but our attention is called to the fact that'the only record evidence of such a plea is the following order: “This day came the defendant and entered a plea of not guilty and former acquittal.” This is not sufficient, under Sec. 164 of the Criminal Code, to authorize the introduction of evidence to establish the fact of a former acquittal. A plea properly entered and sustained by evidence would entitle appellant, under the 'authority of Commonwealth v. Bright, 78 Ky. 238, to a reversal, but in the absence of a plea the evidence is incompetent and the judgment must be affirmed.

W. B. Smith, for appellant.

Hardin, for appellee.