Opinion ID: 2317473
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: alleged improper consideration of illegally seized evidence

Text: Gilmore says: The Appellee repeatedly offered prejudicial evidence of a search of a bus station locker notwithstanding the patent illegality of the warrantless search conducted by the police. It is impossible to determine from the state of the record below which items actually seized by the police from the locker were used during trial of this case or during interrogation of the Appellant, in view of the clouded and confused chain of custody of jewelry allegedly belonging to the deceased, identified by members of [her] family, and allowed in evidence. There were items seized from a locker at a bus station which the trial court refused to admit into evidence. The record clearly disclosed what was admitted into evidence. The only such items said to have been owned by the victim were the two rings to which reference has heretofore been made, one of which was obtained from Miss Nolen, a co-worker, and the other from William Brown. The only other item that could possibly have been connected with the victim was the gold wedding ring removed from Gilmore at the time of his arrest. The only other tangible item of property admitted into evidence was the blood spattered shoes removed from Gilmore. Gilmore says: Although the trial court finally ruled the search to have been illegally conducted and granted Appellant's motions to strike, substantial and irreparable damage to Appellant's fair trial entitlement was done by prejudicial, frequent efforts by the Appellee to introduce the results of the search. The short answer to his contentions is found in State v. Hutchinson, 260 Md. 227, 271 A.2d 641 (1970), where Judge Finan said for the Court: [I]t is clear that we have consistently reposed our confidence in a trial judge's ability to rule on questions of admissibility of evidence and to then assume the role of trier of fact without having carried over to his factual deliberations a prejudice on the matters contained in the evidence which he may have excluded. Id. at 236. To hold otherwise would render almost impossible trial by the court as distinguished from trial by jury. As pointed out by Chief Judge Bond in his article entitled The Maryland Practice of Trying Criminal Cases by Judges Alone, Without Juries in 11 A.B.A.J. 699 (1925) and in Rose v. State, 177 Md. 577, 10 A.2d 617 (1940), the Maryland practice of trials without juries has regularly been allowed since near the founding of the province, if not from the beginning, cited in Grammer v. State, 203 Md. 200, 213-14, 100 A.2d 257 (1953), and more recently in State v. Zimmerman, 261 Md. 11, 273 A.2d 156 (1971).