Opinion ID: 2276253
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Jackson v. State

Text: On 9 January 2006, a jury sitting in the Circuit Court for Kent County convicted Brandon Jackson of distribution of cocaine and related offenses. Jackson noted a timely appeal to the Court of Special Appeals, challenging his convictions and sentences. A three-judge panel of the intermediate appellate court heard oral argument on 9 July 2007. The panel consisted of Judges Joseph F. Murphy, Jr., Raymond G. Thieme, Jr., and Theodore G. Bloom. Judge Murphy, at the time the panel heard oral argument, was Chief Judge of the Court of Special Appeals; however, by the time the opinion was filed in Jackson's appeal, he had been appointed by Governor O'Malley to the Court of Appeals. Thus, as the author of the opinion in Jackson's case in the Court of Special Appeals, he was sitting as a recalled member of that court when the opinion was filed. [2] Judges Thieme and Bloom were retired judges specially assigned to the panel. Regrettably, Judge Bloom died six weeks after argument, while Jackson's appeal remained pending. On 10 July 2008, in an unreported opinion authored by Judge Murphy, the Court of Special Appeals affirmed Jackson's convictions, but reversed one of his sentences. The cover page of the court's opinion noted: Bloom, J. participated in the hearing of the case and in the conference in regard to its decision, but died prior to adoption of the opinion. Jackson filed in the Court of Special Appeals a Motion to Recall Mandate and a Motion for Reconsideration, asserting that the panel's purported decision was invalid because Judge Bloom died before it was issued. The intermediate appellate court, in a reported opinion in which Judge James P. Salmon replaced Judge Bloom on the panel, denied the motions. Jackson v. State, 182 Md.App. 588, 959 A.2d 84 (2008). Jackson filed with this Court a Petition for a Writ of Certiorari, which we granted. Jackson v. State, 406 Md. 443, 959 A.2d 792 (2008). [3]