Opinion ID: 2259105
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The State's Attorney's Alleged Misconduct

Text: This first issue encompasses both petitioner's question and respondent's first question. Namely, we must review the effect of the prosecuting attorney's warning to Ms. Jones regarding the consequences of perjury. In 1967, the United States Supreme Court held that a criminal defendant has the right to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor under the Sixth Amendment, as applied through the Fourteenth Amendment: The right to offer the testimony of witnesses, and to compel their attendance, if necessary, is in plain terms the right to present a defense, the right to present the defendant's version of the facts as well as the prosecution's to the jury so it may decide where the truth lies. Just as an accused has the right to confront the prosecution's witnesses for the purpose of challenging their testimony, he has the right to present his own witnesses to establish a defense. This right is a fundamental element of due process of law. Washington v. Texas, 388 U.S. 14, 19, 87 S.Ct. 1920, 1923, 18 L.Ed.2d 1019 (1967). In Webb v. Texas, 409 U.S. 95, 98, 93 S.Ct. 351, 353-53, 34 L.Ed.2d 330 (1972), the Court revisited that issue and held that a trial court judge deprived a criminal defendant of his right to compulsory process when the judge threatened a defense witness with prosecution for perjury, which effectively prevented the witness from testifying. At the trial, the defense called only one witness. On his own initiative, the trial judge said to the witness: Now you have been called down as a witness in this case by the Defendant. It is the Court's duty to admonish you that you don't have to testify, that anything you say can and will be used against you. If you take the witness stand and lie under oath, the Court will personally see that your case goes to the grand jury and you will be indicted for perjury and the liklihood [sic] is that you would get convicted of perjury and that it would be stacked onto what you have already got, so that is the matter you have got to make up your mind on. If you get on the witness stand and lie, it is probably going to mean several years and at least more time that you are going to have to serve. It will also be held against you in the penitentiary when you're up for parole and the Court wants you to thoroughly understand the chances you're taking by getting on that witness stand under oath. You may tell the truth and if you do, that is all right, but if you lie you can get into real trouble. The court wants you to know that. You don't owe anybody anything to testify and it must be done freely and voluntarily and with the thorough understanding that you know the hazard you are taking. Id. at 95-96, 93 S.Ct. at 352, 34 L.Ed.2d 330. The witness thereafter refused to testify and was excused. The trial court's error, the Supreme Court said, was to gratuitously single out this particular witness and admonish him, at an inordinately great length, about the dangers of perjury. Instead of just warning the witness of his right to refuse to testify and of the necessity to tell the truth, id. at 97, 93 S.Ct. at 353, 34 L.Ed.2d 330, the judge implied that he expected the witness to lie and, in unnecessarily strong terms, threatened the witness with a perjury conviction. These admonishments likely exerted significant duress upon the witness, precluding him from freely and voluntarily choosing whether to testify. Such judicial threats, the Court held, deprived the defendant of his right to due process. Id. at 98, 93 S.Ct. at 353, 34 L.Ed.2d 330. This Court applied Webb in Marshall v. State, 291 Md. 205, 434 A.2d 555 (1981). We held that the trial court abused its discretion by improperly admonishing the defendant about perjury while the defendant was testifying. Id. at 214, 434 A.2d at 560. In that case, the trial judge said to the defendant after he was attempting to testify differently than he had in an earlier stage of his trial: Now, Mr. Marshall, you are under oath. If you fail to tell the truth, you can be charged with perjury. You took the witness stand in front of me the 13th of November.