Court Opinion

ID: 9778502
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 21:10:07.471406+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:33:10.702457
License: Public Domain

STEPHENS, Chief Justice,
dissenting.
Respectfully, I dissent.
Appellant was denied his due process right to a fair trial due to a number of trial errors: allowing the expert witness to testify outside the confines of his report, permitting the Commonwealth to introduce knives not used in the incident charged, and allowing the jury to hear a nonre-sponsive statement by a police officer that appellant had invoked his fifth amendment right to remain silent. Errors that might not be so prejudicial as to amount to a deprivation of due process when considered *260alone may cumulatively produce a trial setting that is fundamentally unfair. Walker v. Engle, 703 F.2d 959 (6th Cir.1983); see also Peters v. Commonwealth, Ky., 477 S.W.2d 154 (1972).
On the basis of cumulative error, I would reverse appellant’s conviction and grant him a full, new trial.
COMBS and LEIBSON, JJ., join in this dissenting opinion.