Opinion ID: 1777841
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: the stark opinion

Text: In Stark , four counts of a multi-count indictment alleged first-degree robbery accomplished by the threat of physical force upon a business entity rather than the person employed by the business. We noted that the robbery statute, KRS 515.020, provided that a robbery can only be committed against a person. Stark then held that failure to include in the indictment an allegation that force was used or threatened against a person, rather than a business, constituted a failure to state a public offense. Therefore, the Court declared each of those robbery counts of the indictment void and permitted the indictment's sufficiency to be challenged for the first time on appeal. The Court reversed those four robbery convictions, thus vacating 79 years of Stark's 537-year sentence. We now overrule this portion of Stark because it is premised on the former Code of Practice in Criminal Cases and overlooks the changes implemented by the adoption of the Rules of Criminal Procedure. Stark relied on cases, particularly Duncan v. Commonwealth, Ky., 330 S.W.2d 419 (1959), decided under the old Criminal Code. However, the present-day Rules of Criminal Procedure were enacted long before Stark was decided. The Rules, and cases decided under the Rules, should have formed the basis for our decision in Stark but did not. They do form the basis of our decision here.