[Download] "Dickerson v. Commonwealth" by Supreme Court of Kentucky ~ eBook PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Dickerson v. Commonwealth
- Author : Supreme Court of Kentucky
- Release Date : January 20, 2005
- Genre: Law,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 85 KB
Description
Defendant, Anwar Haddad, was convicted in Jefferson Parish pursuant to LSA-R.S. 14:95.1, which makes it unlawful for a convicted felon to possess a firearm or carry a concealed weapon. We granted this writ of certiorari to determine whether the trial court erred in failing to give the jury a "neutralizing instruction" to neutralize any inference jurors might draw from the defendants failure to call the driver of the vehicle in which he was a passenger at the time of his arrest as a witness at trial. After a review of federal precedents and jurisprudence from other states, we conclude that the defendant was entitled to have the trial court give a neutralizing instruction and that the failure to do so was not harmless error. Accordingly, we reverse the court of appeals decision and the defendants conviction, and we remand this case to the trial court for a new trial.