Felonies, misdemeanors and violations defined
Applied in 19 court decisions — leading case United States v. Watson (1975)
Most recently applied in Estep v. Combs (August 2018)
Effective: July 1, 1980 History: Amended 1980 Ky
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.
Offenses are either felonies, misdemeanors, or violations:
(1) Offenses punishable by death or confinement in the penitentiary, whether or not a fine or other penalty may also be assessed, are felonies.
(2) Offenses punishable by confinement other than in the penitentiary, whether or not a fine or other penalty may also be assessed, are misdemeanors.
(3) Offenses punishable by a fine only or by any other penalty not cited herein, whether in combination with a fine or not, are violations.
Official source: Kentucky General Assembly. Reproduced from public-domain Kentucky statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.