Whether Kentucky's prosecution of individuals who report suspected child abuse violates the federal Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA) immunity requirement

QUESTIONS PRESENTED The Petitioner, Ali Al-Maqablh, saw bruises on his child’s face. When he reported them to Kentucky’s Child Protective Services, he was charged, tried, convicted, and sentenced to six months of imprisonment and more than $1200 in fines in a jury trial in a rural Kentucky district. Kentucky ranks highest in the nation in incidents of child abuse. Incredibly, the state prosecutes citizens who report suspected child abuse for filing a false police report. Kentucky is a recipient of federal funds under the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA). That federal law requires states, including Kentucky, to enact immunity laws that shield reporters of suspected child abuse from civil and criminal liability. Kentucky codified, such an immunity statute, which gave it the ability to qualify it for federal funds. In 1974, Congress enacted CAPTA in an effort to curb child neglect and abuse and “create a unified focus for preventing and responding to instances of child abuse and neglect.” (CAPTA, P.L. 93-247). As a requirement for establishing eligibility for federal grants under CAPTA, states are required to provide immunity from prosecution for individuals making good-faith reports of known or suspected instances of child abuse or neglect. (42 U.S.C. § 5106a(b)(2)(B)(vii) (2016)). States are also required to implement procedures for receiving and responding to allegations of abuse or neglect in an attempt to ensure children’s safety. Id. In satisfying these i requirements, Kentucky enacted “immunity” and “reporting” statutes codified as Kentucky Revised Statutes (KRS) 620.010-050 also known as CAPTA laws. Unfortunately, Kentucky does not recognize immunity as a defense to criminal liabilities, even though that defense is specifically codified in its statutes. The legal process employed by the state has the effect of not shielding reporters of suspected child abuse from criminal liability. While at the same time that Kentucky is ignoring its immunity statutes, it continues to be the recipient of more than 400 million dollars in federal fund under CAPTA. These legal shortcomings are inherent in Kentucky law and require the intervention of this Court. In particular, while KRS 620.050, specifically enacted to protect a reporter of suspected child from criminal and civil liability, a current Kentucky Supreme Court’s decision disallows immunity as a defense in criminal cases. These failures are multilayered in nature. First, Kentucky prosecutes reporters of suspected child abuse as a Class-A misdemeanor, which carries up to one year of imprisonment, under unrelated statutes. Due to a procedural limitation in Kentucky appellate rules, misdemeanor convictions are not reviewable as Matter-Of-Right in Kentucky Appellate Courts and that glaring issue has remained off the radar for decades. Second, because CAPTA funds are extremely essential to Kentucky governmental operations, it is widely believed that the appellate court’s refusal to address these issues ii is motivated in an attempt to shield Kentucky from potential financial harm. Third, under a Kentucky Supreme Court Precedent (Commonwealth v. Farmer,