Opinion ID: 2322936
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Appellate Procedural History

Text: Mosley appealed to the Court of Special Appeals on March 11, 2002, raising a single issue for review. He argued that he had been denied effective assistance of counsel because his counsel had failed to state with particularity the grounds for the motion for judgment of acquittal made at the close of all the evidence. The evidence regarding the air gun, Mosley maintained, was insufficient to support his convictions for robbery with a dangerous or deadly weapon and wearing or carrying a dangerous weapon, and he argued that his counsel had failed to raise this point specifically, with the result that the issue of the insufficiency of the evidence relating to the dangerousness of the air gun was not preserved for appellate review. The State opposed Mosley's appeal, arguing that the issue of ineffective counsel should be resolved in a post-conviction proceeding. When the record was transmitted to the Court of Special Appeals on May 10, 2002, however, the air gun was not included. Mosley filed a motion to correct the record, which the Court of Special Appeals granted. It appeared that the air gun, which was to be transmitted to the Court of Special Appeals, had been stolen from the trunk of Agent Allis's car. With the gun now lost, in support of his appeal, Mosley secured and filed affidavits of the Assistant State's Attorney, Mosley's trial counsel, and the trial judge as to their recollections of the gun's physical characteristics. Only the Assistant State's Attorney remembered the gun, stating in his affidavit that it was a plastic air gun, heavy, weighed approximately ten pounds, and was between seven and nine inches in length. The Court of Special Appeals, in an unreported opinion, held that the evidence was sufficient to sustain [Mosley's] convictions for robbery with a deadly weapon and wearing and carrying a concealed dangerous weapon as well as concluded that Mosley's ineffective assistance of counsel claim must be decided in a post-conviction proceeding. [1] We granted Mosley's petition for writ of certiorari, presenting the following questions for our review: 1. Did the Court of Special Appeals have the authority on direct appeal to decide whether Petitioner's trial counsel rendered ineffective assistance of counsel in violation of the Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution and Article 21 of the Maryland Declaration of Rights when he failed to argue with particularity the motion for judgment of acquittal after the State offered no evidence that the toy gun used in the robbery qualified as a dangerous or deadly weapon? 2. Given the conflicting statements contained in the Court of Special Appeals's opinion, did the Court actually address Petitioner's ineffective assistance of counsel claim, and, if the Court did address the merits of his claim, is its decision incorrect in light of the fact that the State lost the toy gun before it was transmitted to the Court and the Court subsequently failed to draw inferences about the gun in favor of Petitioner and instead based its decision solely on an affidavit by the Assistant State's Attorney which gave an implausible description of the gun? Although the State opposed direct review of Mosley's claim in the Court of Special Appeals, the State argues before us that the Court of Special Appeals correctly found that Mosley was not denied effective assistance of counsel. The State also maintains that the Court of Special Appeals properly based its decision on the affidavit of the Assistant State's Attorney.