Case ID: ky_217/html/0506-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "Chief Justice Clay —", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

Colley v. Commonwealth.
    (Decided January 11, 1927.)
    Appeal from Boyd Circuit Court.
    Criminal Law — Evidence of Possessing Intoxicating Liquor Claimed Obtained Under Federal Warrant Held Inadmissible, no Proof of Warrant Being Made on Demand. — Evidence of possessing intoxicating liquor claimed secured under federal search warrant held inadmissible; warrant upon demand not being produced, and no attempt being made to account for its absence and prove its contents.
    JOHN W. McKENZIE for appellant.
    FRANK E. DAUGHERTY, Attorney General, and G. D. LITSEY, Assistant Attorney General, for appellee.
   Opinion of the Court by

Chief Justice Clay —

Reversing.

This is an appeal from a judgment convicting appellant of possessing intoxicating liquor.

The officers were on the premises actually engaged in a search, and at least one of them was in appellant’s house when the liquor was discovered. They claimed to have acted under a federal search warrant, but, though the production of the warrant was demanded, they did not produce it, or account for its absence, and prove its contents. That being true, the evidence obtained by the search was inadmissible, and appellant’s objection thereto should have been sustained. Craft v. Commonwealth, 196 Ky. 277, 244 S. W. 696; Adams v. Commonwealth, 197 Ky. 235, 246 S. W. 788.

This conclusion makes it unnecessary to consider the other questions raised.

Judgment reversed and cause’remanded for a new trial not inconsistent with this opinion.