Brewer v. Commonwealth

OPINION-OF THE COURT BY

CHIEF JUSTICE MINTON

In 1996, the Kentucky General Assembly enacted Kentucky Revised Statutes (KRS) 508.032, a statute that purported to enhance “by one degree” the criminal penalty imposed upon a conviction of third or subsequent misdemeanor fourth-degree assault when all of the previous convictions arose from charges in a statutorily defined domestic situation. Ostensibly to address the jurisdictional and procedural quagmire created by that statute, the General Assembly amended the law in 2000 to say that prosecution under the statute would commence by grand jury…