# St. Clair v. Commonwealth

> Kentucky Supreme Court · August 21, 2014 · 451 S.W.3d 597

URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/5283476

## Case

- **Full name:** Michael D. ST. CLAIR v. COMMONWEALTH of Kentucky
- **Court:** Kentucky Supreme Court
- **Decided:** August 21, 2014
- **Citations:** 451 S.W.3d 597; 2014 Ky. LEXIS 341; 2014 WL 4113014
- **Precedential status:** Published
- **Opinion:** Concurrence by Cunningham
- **Judges:** Also, Cunningham, Noble
- **Cited by:** 60 later opinions in the Frix Law Library

## Citator (automated)

- No negative treatment found by the automated citator. That is not the same as a confirmation that the case is good law; read the citing cases.
- Full citator and citing cases: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/5283476

## How later opinions describe it (automated extraction)

- rejecting claim that death penalty was disproportionate because others who committed worse crimes were not given death since “the Constitution mandates that capital sentencing be individualized, with a focus on the defendant and his crime. That other defendants who have commit…
- explaining that courts have repeatedly rejected the argument that reversible error occurs when the jury instructions fail to require written findings as to mitigation
- holding “St. Clair cannot claim he was prejudiced by the giving of an instruction that he requested.”
- holding that “issues decided in earlier appeals should not be revisited in subsequent ones[]”

## Opinion text

CUNNINGHAM, J.,
concurring:
I fully concur with Justice Noble’s excellent opinion. I only write to add the following to our analysis on harmless error. On two separate occasions — the trials of *659 the Appellant in 1998 and 2005 — juries have sentenced the Appellant to death. Lisa Hill did not testify in either of those trials. I cannot imagine more persuasive proof that her testimony in this case was< harmless.

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Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/5283476. Public record. Not legal advice.