Opinion ID: 2161601
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 24

Heading: Admission of Evidence of an Alford Plea

Text: Grandison complains that the trial judge erred in ruling that if Rodney Kelly was called as a witness for the defense, the State would be allowed to cross-examine him on his Alford, supra note 18, plea for impeachment purposes. The plea was offered and apparently accepted to a charge of conspiracy. Grandison argues there was no admission of guilt, nor indeed a finding thereof. [19] The State points out that there is nothing for us to review as Kelly did not testify, and no proffer was made of what his testimony would have been. We agree. In the absence of a proffer, we are unable to determine whether this ruling prejudiced Grandison's case. As Judge Eldridge pointed out in his concurring opinion in Johnson v. State, 303 Md. 487, 495 A.2d 1, cert. denied, ___ U.S. ___, 106 S.Ct. 868, 88 L.Ed.2d 907 (1985): Nevertheless, assuming that the issue can be preserved by a pre-trial motion, it is settled that whenever one is complaining about a trial court's refusal to admit certain testimony, it is necessary that there be a proffer of what the evidence would have been. Mack v. State, 300 Md. 583, 603, 479 A.2d 1344 (1984); Hooten v. Kenneth B. Mumaw P. & H. Co., 271 Md. 565, 571, 318 A.2d 514 (1974); Keys v. Keys, 251 Md. 247, 250, 247 A.2d 282 (1968). At no time in the present case did Grandison make any proffer or make any showing on the record of the nature of the actual testimony which he desired to elicit from Kelly. Accordingly, there is nothing for us to review.