State of Tennessee v. Kenneth Earl Murphy

The Defendant, Kenneth Earl Murphy, appeals his Hardin County Circuit Court
convictions of rape of a child and incest, for which he received an effective sentence of
thirty years’ incarceration. On appeal, the Defendant challenges the sufficiency of the
convicting evidence and argues that the trial court committed plain error by 1) failing to
issue a curative instruction following his testimony regarding a polygraph test; 2)
permitting the introduction of the indictment while simultaneously instructing the jury not
to consider it as evidence; 3) instructing the jury that an admission against interest had been
raised by the proof; and 4) permitting the introduction of irrelevant and prejudicial
character evidence. The Defendant also asserts that the cumulative effect of the errors in
this case entitles him to a new trial. Discerning no error, we affirm.