Opinion ID: 2298009
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 9

Heading: Question Five: Letter to Jury

Text: Grandison argues that he is entitled to resentencing or a belated appeal in order to litigate the admissibility of the State's Exhibit 21, a letter written by Grandison to Janet Moore. The Circuit Court was not persuaded by this argument: Grandison first raised [the admissibility of Exhibit 21] during his post conviction proceeding in 1998. In that proceeding, that Court held that the evidentiary issue was never raised on direct appeal and consequently should not be addressed. If, as that Court ruled in 1998, Grandison failed to raise an objection at trial or on direct appeal, then the Post Conviction Court's 1998 ruling would be accurate.    In this case, the Post Conviction Court ruled that Grandison had an opportunity to object to the use of State's Exhibit 21 at trial and on appeal, but failed to do so. As a result, that Court held that Grandison waived his right to contest the admission of Exhibit 21. (Citations omitted.) At the hearing on April 26, 2010, Grandison argued that he had objected to the admission of Exhibit 21 on May 27, 1994, which would have properly preserved the objection. The Circuit Court did not find persuasive evidence that such an objection was made and declined to grant Grandison's motion for resentencing on this ground. [16] We decline to consider the merits of Grandison's argument on this question. As the State argues, Grandison made no mention of Exhibit 21 in his direct appeal to this Court in 1995 in Grandison III, and the postconviction court summarily denied Grandison's claim relating to that exhibit in 1998. The postconviction court specifically held that Grandison, by not raising this issue on appeal and providing no evidence to the Court for his reasons for failing to raise the issue previously, has waived his right to advance this issue on post conviction. Afterward, this Court denied Grandison's motion to reconsider denial of application for leave to appeal, which he had filed in response to his denial of postconviction relief. See Grandison IV, 351 Md. at 732, 720 A.2d at 322 (1998). Furthermore, this claim was raised in Grandison's federal habeas corpus petition and also resolved by the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland: [Grandison] claims that counsel should have raised the issue regarding Exhibit 21, the letter that allegedly was never formally moved into evidence. Strickland did not require the argument to be pressed as a matter of reasonable appellate representation, as there was no error in connection with the exhibit of a prejudicial nature, and petitioner's failure to make the proper objections below would have resulted in the error not being preserved for appellate review as a matter of Maryland law anyway. (Emphasis added.) Grandison v. Corcoran, 78 F.Supp.2d 499, 511 (D.Md. 2000). The pertinent statute reads: For the purposes of this title, an allegation of error is finally litigated when: (1) an appellate court of the State decides on the merits of the allegation: (i) on direct appeal; or (ii) on any consideration of an application for leave to appeal filed under § 7-109 of this subtitle[.] Maryland Code (2001, 2008 Repl.Vol.), § 7-106(a) of the Criminal Procedure Article. We agree with the State that this claim has been finally litigated. We need not revisit this claim, and affirm the Circuit Court on Question Five.