Opinion ID: 2161601
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 40

Heading: Imposition of Two Death Sentences

Text: Grandison next argues that [p]resumably, the legislature intended that only one death sentence be returned in a case where more than one person was killed.... Moreover, the addition of the option to impose a second penalty unduly enhances the contract murder aggravating factor. We recently answered this argument. In Evans v. State, 304 Md. 487, 538, 499 A.2d 1261, 1288 (1985), we said in part: We find no such legislative intent. Each murder was clearly a separate offense. The readily apparent intent of the Legislature in the enactment of the capital punishment statute was to permit consideration of the death penalty under the egregious circumstances of multiple first degree murders. There is no indication of an intent to allow the imposition of that punishment as a sanction for one but not all of the offenses. Cf., Thomas v. State, 301 Md. 294, 333-334, 483 A.2d 6 (1984), cert. denied, ___ U.S. ___, 105 S.Ct. 1856, 85 L.Ed.2d 153 (1985). We deem what we said in Evans to be dispositive here.