Garland v. Commonwealth

OPINION OF THE COURT BY

JUSTICE VENTERS

Seeking post-conviction relief from a death sentence, Appellant John Roscoe Garland argued in the McCreary Circuit Court that he was deprived of due process of law in violation of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution and Section 11 of the Kentucky Constitution, when, immediately after his trial, police officers acting in bad faith destroyed certain items of evidence, rendering them unavailable for DNA testing. Following an evidentiary hearing on the issue, the McCreary Circuit Court found that the officers had not acted in…