If a witness refuses to testify, or to be sworn, or to give a deposition, he shall be imprisoned so long as he refuses, or until he testifies before an officer who is authorized to take his testimony. The final disposition of the case in which he so refuses shall discharge him from imprisonment.
KRS 421.140
Refusal of witness to testify -- Imprisonment
Applied in 9 court decisions — leading case Young v. Knight (1959)
Most recently applied in Norton v. Commonwealth (February 2001)
Effective: January 2, 1978 History: Amended 1976 (1st Extra
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Official source: Kentucky General Assembly. Reproduced from public-domain Kentucky statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.