Opinion ID: 2317473
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: illegally seized evidence

Text: When Gilmore was taken to police headquarters and before any statement was received from him, a ring and bloodstained boots were seized. The trial judge said of the ring: It was also admitted into evidence as State's Exhibit 6 a plain gold wedding band, which was removed off the outside little finger on the left hand of the defendant at the time he was arrested. An examination of that ring by the Court, sitting as a jury, persuades the Court that it is a ring of female size, and not of male size; that it would not be a male wedding band, because of its circumference. And, indeed, this is borne out by the fact that the defendant wore it on his little finger of his left hand that it was a female's ring. No attempt was made at the trial to elicit from the family of the victim identification of this ring as having belonged to the victim. It was determined that the blood was human blood, but the specimens were too small to classify as to blood type. Accordingly, no effort was made to show whether the blood type corresponded with that of the victim. Since the arrest was legal, it follows that the two items were legally seized and properly admitted into evidence. Sterling v. State, 248 Md. 240, 245, 235 A.2d 711 (1967).