Court Opinion

ID: 9756988
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 22:12:45.571631+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:28:34.016082
License: Public Domain

*675
Smith, J.,

dissenting:

I would affirm the Court of Special Appeals.
I think the trial judge did not err when he overruled the objection of defense counsel to the question, my reasons for so believing being as set forth for the Court of Special Appeals by Judge Gilbert in Ross v. State, 24 Md. App. 246, 257-60, 330 A. 2d 507 (1975). The majority here seem to have been so mesmerized by the answer to the question that they have been unable to perceive the actual question as it was before the trial judge when he ruled. The question was not objectionable on its face. It is obvious that what was sought to be elicited was the knowledge of the relationship of the parties. It could well have been that they had been associated as neighbors, co-workers, longtime friends or the like.
The ruling only had the effect of “ presenting] to the jury evidence of the appellant’s bad character before he had taken the stand to testify” because the answer showed this, not because the question — as heard by the trial judge — called for such an objectionable answer. If counsel for the defense thought the State was seeking an objectionable answer, he could — and should — have stated that fact to the trial judge out of the hearing of the jury and the witness. The court no doubt then would have requested a proffer from the State as to the anticipated answer and the trial judge then could have ruled accordingly.
The command of Maryland Rule 522 d 2 is for “objection to the admissibility of evidence [to] be made at the time when the evidence is offered, or as soon thereafter as the objection to its admissibility shall have become apparent. . . .” (Emphasis added.) When the answer, rather than the question, proved objectionable, it became incumbent upon defense counsel to move to strike the answer, thus renewing the objection to the question as particularized by the answer. See Armour & Co. v. Leasure, 177 Md. 393, 408, 9 A. 2d 572 (1939). He then would have requested a cautionary instruction from the trial court. Having failed to move to *676strike the objectionable answer to an apparently proper question, he now should be foreclosed from complaining.
I am authorized to state that Judge O’Donnell concurs in the views here expressed.