Opinion ID: 2402732
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: Our Views.

Text: The trial judge based her power and authority to pass the orders upon her inherent discretionary power [to] allow such depositions, and the provisions of Article 21 of the Declaration of Rights which state that in all criminal prosecutions  every man has a right, among others that are named, to be confronted with the witnesses against him and to examine the witnesses for and against him on oath. (Emphasis added.) It is conceded, as indeed it must be, that no explicit authority to take pre-trial depositions is contained in any Maryland statute or rule of court, or in the Maryland Constitution. Hence, we may confine our considerations, at least in the main part, to the two grounds named by the trial court, and the claim raised by the appellees that they are entitled to take the depositions under the constitutional guarantees of the Fourteenth Amendment.