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239 S.W.2d 939

Layne v. Commonwealth

Court of Appeals of Kentucky

Decided May 15, 1951

Court of Appeals of Kentucky · decided 1951-05-15

Relies on United States Coal & Coke Co. v. Lloyd · Hayes v. Commonwealth

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1951-05-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 6 later decisions — most recently February 1983

3 federal appellate · 3 state decisions

301951196019701980decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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CAMMACK, Chief Justice.

¶1Jack Layne pleaded guilty to a charge of breaking into a storehouse. His punishment was fixed at three years in prison. This appeal is prosecuted on the ground that Layne understood and believed that he would receive a two yeár sentence upon his plea' of guilty. As agreed, the Commonwealth’s Attorney recommended a two year sentence for Layne, but the jury fixed his punishment at three years.

¶2We were confronted with a similar situation in the case of Hayes v. Commonwealth, 305 Ky. 108, 203 S.W.2d 1. In that, case we pointed out that a jury is not bound by an agreement made between an accused and a prosecutor; and, further, that the sole power of fixing punishment within tfie limits prescribed by law lies with the jury. In the Hayes case the members of the jury had remained silent when asked whether or not they would abide by the recommendation of the Commonwealth’s Attorney. But, even in that case, we affirmed the judgment based upon the verdict of the jury.

¶3Judgment affirmed.

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