Criminal: JACKSON V. COMMONWEALTH (COA; 2/17/2006)

JACKSON V. COMMONWEALTH
CRIMINAL – Fight evidence of guilt
2005-CA-000330
PUBLISHED   
AFFIRMING (BUCKINGHAM)
DATE: 2/17/2006

TC did not err in admitting evidence of Jackson’s flight after he posted bond and was released from custody prior to trial.  Conviction for possession of a handgun by a convicted felon and being a persistent felony offender in the first degree affirmed.  CA concluded that the evidence of flight in this case was admissible pursuant to KRE 404(b)(1) to show "an expression of a sense of guilt."

In Rodriguez v. Commonwealth, 107 S.W.3d 215 (Ky.2003), the Kentucky Supreme Court determined that the common-law rule regarding the admissibility of evidence of flight survived the adoption of the Kentucky Rules of Evidence (KRE) as a rule of relevancy. Id. at 219. The court explained that "evidence of flight is admissible because it has a tendency to make the existence of the defendant’s guilt more probable: a guilty person probably would act like a guilty person."