In any criminal or penal prosecution the defendant, on his own request, shall be allowed to testify in his own behalf, but his failure to do so shall not be commented upon or create any presumption against him.
KRS 421.225
Testimony of defendant
Applied in 18 court decisions — leading case Carter v. Kentucky (1981)
Most recently applied in Woolfolk v. Commonwealth (April 2011)
Effective: June 21, 1974 History: Amended 1974 Ky
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.