RETRIAL ORDERED OF CONVICTION ON 'HABIT EVIDENCE'

FRANKFORT (AP) - A man convicted of manslaughter on evidence that it was
his "habit" to smoke marijuana every day was granted a new trial by a
sharply divided Kentucky Supreme Court.

By a 4-3 decision, the justices declined to reverse 100 years of case law
in which "habit evidence" has been inadmissible in Kentucky courts.

The ruling came in an appeal by George H. Burchett Jr., a farm laborer who
allegedly was impaired when he sped through a stop sign in Green County and
hit another vehicle, resulting in the death of its driver, Sherman Darnell,
in 1997.

There were traces of an anti-depressant, a narcotic painkiller and
marijuana in Burchett's urine. A blood sample proved Burchett had not been
drinking but was insufficient for testing for the other substances.