Crawley v. Commonwealth

Dissenting Opinion by

Justice STUMBO.

Chief Justice Lambert’s concurring opinion in Hayes v. Commonwealth, Ky., 58 S.W.3d 879 (2001), pointed out that the majority overruled relatively recent precedent sua sponte, even though it was not necessary to do so to resolve the issue. Mathews v. Commonwealth, Ky., 997 S.W.2d 449 (1999), became final little more *205than a year before this trial was held. Defense counsel followed the procedure set forth in that opinion when he placed avowal testimony into the record. The error alleged was preserved and remained so until October of 2001, when Hayes was…