Opinion ID: 2076252
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Hunt's Request for a Jury Instruction

Text: Hunt first asked that the judge take judicial notice of the handgun sentence and instruct the jury that: Mr. Hunt has already received a 20 year sentence for a handgun violation that was related to the offense in this case. That sentence will be served in addition to a sentence of life should your sentence be life imprisonment. The judge properly refused the requested instruction. The proposed instruction was misleading. It asserted that the defendant would serve 20 years in prison in addition to the life sentence the jury might impose for the murder conviction. A consecutive sentence could extend the mandatory minimum time Hunt would have had to serve before being considered for parole; a concurrent sentence would not have the same effect. The judge had no obligation to make the life sentence consecutive to the handgun sentence, and could not declare whether it would be consecutive or concurrent until the defendant had an opportunity to present an allocution. In addition, if the judge had given the proposed instruction, the State would have had no opportunity to rebut or explain the effect of the 20 year sentence. The jury could have only guessed as to the actual impact of the sentence, and its effect on Hunt's parole eligibility. A defendant has no right to an instruction that is inaccurate. Collins v. State, 318 Md. 269, 290, 568 A.2d 1, 11, cert. denied, ___ U.S. ___, 110 S.Ct. 3296, 111 L.Ed.2d 805 (1990). Hunt's requested instruction was potentially misleading and the judge did not abuse his discretion in refusing the instruction.