Commonwealth v. Terrell

OPINION OF THE COURT BY

CHIEF JUSTICE MINTON

Police took Samuel Terrell into custody to question him while investigating his mother’s murder, but a circuit court order halted the questioning until Terrell was allowed access to a public defender. Terrell’s father procured this order from the circuit judge, ex parte, purportedly under the authority of Kentucky Rule of Criminal Procedure (RCr) 2.14(2). The Commonwealth appealed the order; and the Court of Appeals affirmed the circuit court’s issuance of the order based on our interpretation of RCr. 2.14(2) in West v. Commonwealth,1 which held that…