Court Opinion

ID: 9759307
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 00:11:51.570181+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:29:01.062386
License: Public Domain

BELL, C.J.,
dissents which GREENE, J., joins in Parts C and D only.
APPENDIX
PROCEDURAL HISTORY OF STATE v. EVANS
It is rare that we attach an Appendix to an Opinion. In most instances when we do so, it is for convenience—to display a plat, diagram, or other pictorial document as a *351complement to the verbal description of it in the Opinion. We attach this Appendix, which describes, as succinctly as possible, the long, tortured history of this case, for two reasons. The first is to give a more complete context to some of the issues raised in these appeals. The second is to demonstrate the extraordinary lengths to which the State and Federal courts have gone, and continue to go, to protect the rights of Vernon Evans and to dispel any notion that he has not received the full measure of process and consideration that is due to any person accused of crime and, most particularly, to one who faces the death penalty.
Two separate juries—one in Worcester County and one more than a hundred miles away in Baltimore County— unanimously determined, eight years apart, that Evans should be put to death for the brutal murders he committed. Excluding the four pending appeals, Evans has had eleven appeals to this Court and has presented seven petitions to the United States Supreme Court. Depending on how one isolates or clusters his arguments, he has presented approximately one hundred complaints to the Circuit Courts in three counties and to us, many of them several times. He has had more than two dozen complaints considered and rejected by the U.S. District Court and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and has several more now pending in the District Court. Throughout, he has been represented by able, experienced, competent counsel.
These appeals and the various proceedings described in this Appendix all arose from a double murder committed by Evans on April 28, 1988, more than 23 years ago. Evans was paid $9,000 by or on behalf of Anthony Grandison, who was then in jail awaiting trial on Federal narcotics charges, to kill David Piechowicz and his wife, Cheryl. Mr. and Ms. Piechowicz were slated to testify against Grandison in Federal court a week later. Evans went to the Warren House Motel in Baltimore County and, in cold blood, murdered Mr. Piechowicz and the woman he thought was Cheryl but who, in fact, was Cheryl’s sister, Susan Kennedy.
*352Two prosecutions ensued—one Federal and one State. The Federal prosecution came first in time. In May, 1983, the Government charged Evans, Grandison, and two others with conspiracy to violate the civil rights of David and Cheryl Piechowicz (18 U.S.C. § 241) and with witness tampering (18 U.S.C. § 1512). In November, 1983, Evans and Grandison were convicted by a Federal jury on both counts and sentenced to life imprisonment. On appeal, Evans raised eight issues, all of which were found by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit to be without merit. United States v. Grandison, 780 F.2d 425 (4th Cir.1985).
One of the issues presented by both Evans and Grandison was that the Government used its peremptory challenges in a manner that was racially biased against African American jurors. While the case was pending on appeal, the Supreme Court granted certiorari in Batson v. Kentucky, 471 U.S. 1052, 105 S.Ct. 2111, 85 L.Ed.2d 476 (1985), but that case had not been decided by the time the Fourth Circuit court acted on the Grandison/Evans appeal, and the peremptory challenge issue was resolved against Evans under the rule established in Swain v. Alabama, 380 U.S. 202, 85 S.Ct. 824, 13 L.Ed.2d 759 (1965).
Batson was decided by the Supreme Court shortly thereafter—see Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79, 106 S.Ct. 1712, 90 L.Ed.2d 69 (1986)—and, in Griffith v. Kentucky, 479 U.S. 314, 107 S.Ct. 708, 93 L.Ed.2d 649 (1987), Batson was declared to apply retroactively to cases still in litigation. In February, 1987, the Supreme Court vacated the Federal convictions in light of Griffith and remanded the cases for the District Court to consider the effect of Batson. In May, 1988, after an evidentiary hearing, the District Court found no purposeful discrimination in the Government’s exercise of its peremptory challenges, denied Evans’s and Grandison’s motion for new trial, and reinstated the judgments, and in September, 1989, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit affirmed. United States v. Grandison, 885 F.2d 143 (4th Cir.1989). The *353appellate court denied motions for rehearing, and, in May, 1990, the Supreme Court denied certiorari. Grandison v. United States, 495 U.S. 934, 110 S.Ct. 2178, 109 L.Ed.2d 507 (1990). That ended the Federal prosecution.
On June 30, 1983, the State prosecution commenced in Baltimore County with an indictment charging Evans and Grandison with two counts of first degree murder, one count of conspiracy to commit murder, and one count of using a handgun in the commission of a felony. Prior to trial, the cases against Evans and Grandison were severed. On September 7, 1983, Evans was served with a notice of the State’s intention to seek the death penalty that listed two aggravating circumstances upon which the State intended to rely—that the murder was committed pursuant to an agreement or contract for remuneration or the promise of remuneration (current Maryland Code, § 2-303(g)(l)(vi) of the Criminal Law Article (CL); former Ann.Code, 1957, Art. 27, § 413(d)(6)) and that the defendant committed more than one first degree murder arising out of the same incident (CL § 2-303(g)(l)(ix); former Ann.Code, 1957, Art. 27, § 413(d)(9)).
At Evans’s request, his case was removed from Baltimore County to Worcester County, where it was assigned to Judge Cathell, then a judge of the Circuit Court. Prior to trial, but after his conviction on the Federal charges, Evans moved to dismiss the State indictment on the ground that his Federal convictions precluded a subsequent State prosecution under both Federal and State double jeopardy prohibitions. His principal argument was that the dual sovereignty principle, long and well established in both the State and Federal courts, was not applicable. The motion was denied and, in an interlocutory appeal, this Court affirmed that ruling. Evans v. State, 301 Md. 45, 481 A.2d 1135 (1984). (CA-1).18 Evans’s *354petition for certiorari was denied by the Supreme Court. Grandison v. Maryland, 470 U.S. 1034, 105 S.Ct. 1411, 84 L.Ed.2d 795 (1985). (SC-1).
With that resolved, the case proceeded before a jury, which convicted Evans of the two murders and related offenses and sentenced him to death. He appealed, raising 17 issues. The first ten dealt with the trial as to guilt or innocence and the remaining seven pertained to the sentencing proceeding:
(1) An in-court identification by Calvin Harper should have been suppressed because it was tainted by a suggestive and unreliable pre-trial identification;
(2) He was entitled to a mistrial because of the State’s failure to notify him of a photographic identification;
(3) Two State’s witnesses—Calvin Harper and Charlene Sparrow—were incompetent witnesses because they had previously committed perjury;
(4) The trial court erred in denying his motion to compel a psychiatric examination of Charlene Sparrow, quashing a subpoena for her attendance at trial, and refusing to exclude her testimony at trial;
(5) The trial court erred in denying his motions for further removal from Worcester County and for a continuance in order to individually voir dire prospective jurors;
(6) The trial court erred in admitting certain documents as business records;
(7) The trial court erred in admitting a MAC-11 machine pistol as representative of the unrecovered weapon used in the murders;
(8) The trial court erred in excluding from the jury venire persons who stated that they would never vote to impose capital punishment;
*355(9) The State’s use of peremptory challenges to exclude African-Americans was improper;
(10) A renewal of the double jeopardy argument he made in his earlier interlocutory appeal;
(11) The trial court erred in excluding evidence of a minimum parole release date;19
( 12) The trial court erred in refusing to instruct the jury that, if it found that the murders were contract murders, it must find as a mitigating factor that Evans was not the sole cause of the victims’ deaths;
(13) The trial court erred in refusing to instruct the jury that any non-statutory mitigating factors it found to exist could be given as much weight as statutory mitigating factors;
(14) The death penalty law was unconstitutional in that it shifted the burden to defendants to prove the existence of mitigating factors;
(15) The trial court’s instructions regarding reasonable doubt were deficient because they omitted to inform the jury that the State’s proof must be “to a moral certainty;”
(16) Given that there were two murders and only one death penalty can be imposed, it was error to allow the jury, as to each murder, to rely on the aggravating factor that the defendant committed more than one offense of first degree murder arising out of the same incident; and
(17) Imposition of the death penalty in the case was disproportionate to sentences imposed in similar cases.
In a 42-page opinion examining each of those issues, this Court found no merit to them and affirmed. Evans v. State, 304 Md. 487, 499 A.2d 1261 (1985). (CA-2). It was in response to the last complaint, about disproportionality, that we observed that “[t]he murders giving rise to this prosecu*356tion were as heinous as those in any case to come before us under the present capital punishment statute.” Id. at 539, 499 A.2d at 1288. Evans’s motion for reconsideration, in which he presented six issues, was denied, Foster, Evans and Huffington v. State, 305 Md. 306, 503 A.2d 1326 (1986) (CA-3), and the Supreme Court denied certiorari. Evans v. Maryland, 478 U.S. 1010, 106 S.Ct. 3310, 92 L.Ed.2d 722 (1986). (SC-2).
In March, 1990, Evans filed his first petition under the Post Conviction Act in the Circuit Court for Worcester County. He raised 22 issues in the petition and added six more on the day of the hearing. Many of them had been, or could have been, raised in his direct appeal. In summary, they were that he was denied equal protection of the law or due process by or because:
(1) The State’s racially discriminatory use of peremptory challenges;
( 2) The selection process for veniremen in Worcester County was unlawful in that the county had a 22% black population and the jury venire was only 19.85% black;
(3) There was an under-representation of minority and young persons on jury panels and as forepersons of jury panels;
(4) The excusing for cause of jurors who had reservations about the death penalty;
(5) The trial court’s failure to sequester the jury and grant a postponement;
(6) The trial court’s refusal to allow individual voir dire;
(7) The jury was “uninformed” because some members had never heard of him or Grandison;
(8) The jury was shown an orientation film (about which no specific complaint was made);
(9) He was not present at certain bench conferences that constituted critical stages of the trial;
(10) The court’s refusal to question prospective jurors on drug usage as a mitigating factor;
*357(11) The fact that an Assistant U.S. Attorney, specially designated as an assistant State’s Attorney, was part of the prosecution team;
(12) He was not advised of his right to a court trial at the guilt/innocence stage;
(13) He was not allowed to subject the State’s witness, Charlene Sparrow, to a psychiatric examination;
(14) The State used perjured testimony of Sparrow and Calvin Harper;
(15) The State failed to disclose exculpatory grand jury testimony;
(16) The admission of a MAC-11 machine pistol;
(17) He was subjected to a suggestive lineup;
(18) He received ineffective assistance of counsel at both trial and sentencing;
(19) Because of his Federal convictions, the State prosecution violated his right against double jeopardy;
(20) Because of the Federal prosecutions, the State prosecution constituted cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth Amendment;
(21) He received ineffective assistance of counsel in his appeal;
(22) The trial court’s instructions at sentencing and the sentencing form given to the jury unconstitutionally suggested that unanimity was required in order to find a mitigating factor, in contravention of Mills v. Maryland, 486 U.S. 367, 108 S.Ct. 1860, 100 L.Ed.2d 384 (1988);
(23) The State lost jurisdiction over Evans when he was transferred, for a time, to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons to serve his Federal sentences;
(24) Government agents who investigated the murders suppressed favorable evidence (that complaint was withdrawn but renewed in subsequent proceedings);
*358(25) The prosecutors made unfair and prejudicial comments regarding his failure to present alibi evidence;
(26) One juror was not a resident of Worcester County;
(27) He was not personally served with the State’s notice of its intention to seek the death penalty; and
(28) During closing argument, the prosecutor made improper remarks concerning the effect of the murders on the victims’ families.
On March 28, 1991, the post conviction court (Judge Eschenburg), in a 38-page memorandum opinion, addressed each of those issues and found merit in only one—No. 22. The court held that the sentencing form did, indeed, violate Mills and that the error was not ameliorated by the court’s instructions to the jury. As that error affected only the sentencing, the court ordered a new sentencing hearing but denied the request for a new trial as to guilt or innocence. (PC-1).
Both Evans and the State filed an application for leave to appeal that decision. The State complained about the post conviction court’s analysis and application of Mills. Evans complained about 19 of the other rulings not in his favor. In June, 1991, this Court denied both applications. State v. Evans, Misc. No. 8, Sept. Term 1991 (Order filed June 4, 1991). (CA-4). It does not appear that either side sought further review in the Supreme Court.
Prior to the new sentencing hearing, pursuant to Evans’s request, the case was removed back to the Circuit Court for Baltimore County (Judge Kahl). On November 5,1992, a jury in that court again sentenced Evans to death, and Evans appealed, raising twelve issues:
(1) Whether there was insufficient questioning of prospective jurors regarding their predisposition toward the death penalty;
(2) Whether the court erred in failing to ask a voir dire question relating to such predisposition exactly in the form he requested;
*359(3) The prosecutor impermissibly suggested to the jury that Evans would likely escape from prison and be a danger to society;
(4) The court erred in submitting a presentence investigation report to the jury without redacting Evans’s initial refusal to speak to the investigator, in violation of his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination;
(5) The court erred in permitting victim impact evidence of any kind to be considered by the jury;
(6) The court erred in admitting Cheryl Piechowicz’s victim impact statement because it was prejudicial;
(7) The court erred in refusing to instruct the jury that victim impact evidence is not an appropriate consideration in imposing sentence;
(8) The court erred in admitting certain autopsy photographs of the victims;
(9) The court erred in allowing the jury to see a docket entry from which it might infer that the jury at the guilt/innocence trial deliberated for less than two hours;
(10) The court erred in refusing two requested instructions on mitigating circumstances;
(11) The court erred in admitting a MAC-11 machine pistol at the sentencing hearing; and
(12) The evidence was insufficient to show that the aggravating factors relied on by the State outweighed mitigating factors and that the sentence was not imposed under the influence of passion, prejudice, or any other arbitrary factor.
In February, 1994, in a 34-page opinion, the Court found no merit in any of these complaints and affirmed the judgments. Evans v. State, 333 Md. 660, 637 A.2d 117 (1994). (CA-5). Evans sought certiorari in the Supreme Court, which was denied. Evans v. Maryland, 513 U.S. 833, 115 S.Ct. 109, 130 L.Ed.2d 56 (1994). (SC-3).
On August 29, 1995, Evans filed a second petition for post conviction relief, in the Circuit Court for Baltimore County. *360The petition raised 41 issues, many of which were clustered and presented in two or more different contexts, and most of which had been previously litigated:
(1) The State prosecution was precluded by double jeopardy;
(2) The State relinquished its authority over Evans when it moved him back to the Federal Bureau of Prisons to resume service of his Federal sentences;
(3) He received ineffective assistance of trial counsel in the re-sentencing proceeding. Trial counsel, he said, was ineffective in:
(a) Failing to call Roberta Weinstein and Darece Pinkney as witnesses to contest the State’s evidence that he was a principal in the first degree in the murders;
(b) Submitting certain supplemental voir dire questions belatedly;
(c) Failing to challenge the State’s alleged systematic exclusion of African-American jurors;
(d) Failing to ask specific, individual questions on voir dire going to juror predisposition toward the death penalty;
(e) Failing to request that the judge ask voir dire questions relating to racial bias;
(f) Belatedly making a Batson argument;
(g) Incompetently cross-examining Charlene Sparrow;
(h) Failing to interview and present witnesses from the Federal prison in Marion, Illinois to offer testimony regarding how Evans positively affected their lives;
(i) Failing to properly investigate Evans’s parole eligibility and projected release date if he received life sentences;
(j) Failing to ask the sentencing judge to formulate a proper response to two questions from the jury relating to the effect of life sentences;
(k) Failing to object to the court’s instruction concerning the jury’s consideration of Evans’s allocution; and
*361(l) Agreeing to removal of the re-sentencing from Worcester County to Baltimore County;
(4) He received ineffective assistance of appellate counsel in the re-sentencing proceeding, in that appellate counsel:
(a) Failed to raise the issue of ineffective assistance of trial counsel;
(b) Failed to complain that the re-sentencing jury did not represent a fair cross-section of the community;
(c) Failed to complain about the trial judge’s attempt to “rehabilitate” jurors who showed a bias in favor of the death penalty;
(d) Failed to illustrate the deficient voir dire by omitting to point out that certain jurors were not asked certain questions;
(e) Failed to complain about the court’s striking of jurors for cause after denying follow-up questions sought by defense counsel;
(f) Failed to complain about the trial court’s failure to conduct individual voir dire as to racial attitudes;
(g) Failed to complain about the trial court’s refusal to bifurcate the re-sentencing proceeding;
(h) Failed to raise a Batson issue relating to the State’s peremptory strikes of African-American jurors; and
(i) Failed to complain that the death penalty is unconstitutional because it is imposed disproportionately on African-Americans in cases involving white victims;
(5) The sentencing jury did not represent a fair cross-section of the community because of systematic exclusion of racial minorities from jury panels;
(6) The re-sentencing court erred in conducting voir dire generally;
(7) It erred specifically in failing to conduct adequate voir dire into racial attitudes;
*362(8) The court erred in relying on jury instructions to compensate for inadequacies in voir dire;
(9) The court erred in allowing concerns of judicial economy to outweigh a constitutionally sufficient voir dire;
(10) The court erred in failing to bifurcate the sentencing proceeding;
(11) The court erred in denying Evans’s Batson challenge;
(12) The court failed to correct prosecutorial misconduct during closing and rebuttal argument;
(13) The court failed to redact a portion of the presentence investigation report;
(14) The death penalty constitutes excessive punishment;
(15) The death penalty is unconstitutional because it is imposed disproportionately on African-Americans involving white victims (this was repeated in several different contexts);
(16) Evans was denied effective assistance of counsel at his first post conviction proceeding;
(17) He was denied equal protection of the law because post conviction counsel was ineffective in presenting a Batson complaint;
(18) The death penalty is unconstitutional because it is imposed disproportionately on males;
(19) The trial court erred in refusing to allow Charlene Sparrow to undergo a psychiatric examination to determine her competence to testify;
(20) The prosecutor engaged in a pattern of using peremptory challenges to strike jurors on the basis of race; and
(21) Trial counsel was deficient in failing to present evidence of that pattern.
On January 24, 1997, in a 26-page memorandum opinion, the Circuit Court (Judge Smith) discussed each of those complaints, found that most of them had previously been litigated and that none had merit, and denied the petition. (PC-2). Evans filed an application, and then a 37-page *363amended application, for leave to appeal, which this Court considered and denied. See Evans v. State, 345 Md. 524, 693 A.2d 780 (1997). (CA-6). He then sought review by the Supreme Court, which, in November, 1997, also was denied. See Evans v. Maryland, 522 U.S. 966, 118 S.Ct. 411, 139 L.Ed.2d 314 (1997). (SC-4).
On November 3, 1997, Evans filed a petition for habeas corpus in the U.S. District Court, raising 24 issues, several of which had sub-parts-essentially the issues previously raised in the State courts:
(1) The prosecutor’s use of peremptory challenges at the guilt phase trial in 1984—the Batson claim;
(2) Ineffective assistance of counsel at resentencing because of:
(a) Failure to call witnesses Weinstein and Pinkney to testify; and
(b) Failure to call an expert on Federal parole to testify that Evans would not begin serving his State sentences for at least 30 years;
(3) The prosecutor’s use of peremptory challenges at the guilt phase trial in violation of Swain v. Alabama, supra, 380 U.S. 202, 85 S.Ct. 824, 13 L.Ed.2d 759;
(4) The venire in Worcester County in 1984 did not reflect a fair cross-section of the community, with respect to the petit jury;
(5) The venire in Baltimore County in 1983 did not reflect a fair cross-section of the community with respect to the grand jury;
(6) The trial court in the guilt phase erred in not permitting individual voir dire;
(7) The trial court erred in not removing the case from Worcester County because of adverse publicity;
(8) A pretrial identification of Evans by Calvin Harper was unduly suggestive and tainted his in-court identification;
*364(9) The trial court erred in refusing to order a psychiatric examination of Charlene Sparrow;
(10) The re-sentencing jury in Baltimore County did not reflect a fair cross-section of the community;
(11) Voir dire with respect to the re-sentencing jury was inadequate and the court erred in refusing to strike certain jurors for cause;
(12) Appellate counsel in Evans’s direct appeal was ineffective in failing to contest Judge Kahl’s failure to strike those jurors for cause;
(13) The re-sentencing court failed to provide adequate voir dire with respect to the racial attitudes of prospective jurors;
(14) The re-sentencing court erred in refusing to bifurcate the re-sentencing proceeding, to deal first with principalship and then with aggravating and mitigating factors;
(15) The re-sentencing court failed to give an adequate response to a jury note regarding the nature and length of other sentences imposed on Evans;
(16) Counsel at the re-sentencing were ineffective by failing to produce evidence of Evans’s good behavior in prison;
(17) Counsel was also ineffective in eliciting a damaging response from Charlene Sparrow on cross-examination;
(18) The re-sentencing court erred in allowing allocution too close to the time it instructed the jury regarding Evans’s right not to testify;
(19) Re-sentencing counsel was ineffective in failing to object to the timing of the allocution;
(20) The re-sentencing court erred in failing to redact a statement in the pre-sentence investigation report that Evans had initially refused to speak with the investigator;
(21) There was improper argument from the prosecutor;
(22) In light of his Federal convictions, the State prosecution was barred by double jeopardy principles;
*365(23) Maryland relinquished authority over Evans by returning him to Federal custody; and
(24) The death penalty is unconstitutional because it constitutes excessive punishment and is disproportionately imposed on African-Americans who murder white victims.
In a 36-page opinion, the District Court (Judge Legg) considered each of those complaints, found that many had previously been litigated, concluded that there was no merit to any of them, and denied the petition. See Evans v. Smith, 54 F.Supp.2d 503 (D.Md.1999). (DC-1). After the court denied a motion for rehearing, Evans appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.
While the appeal to the Fourth Circuit court was pending, Evans filed a motion in the Circuit Court for Baltimore County to reopen his 1995 post conviction proceeding to add a claim that the State withheld an FBI report recounting an agent’s interview with one Janet Bannister. Regarding that report as exculpatory evidence, Evans claimed a violation of Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83, 83 S.Ct. 1194, 10 L.Ed.2d 215 (1963). The court (Judge Smith) denied the motion on the grounds that Evans’s affidavit and petition were insufficient to show that the State had failed to provide the exculpatory material, that, even if it had, Evans failed to show that he was prevented from raising that claim in his first post conviction proceeding, and that Bannister’s statement was insufficient in any event to support a reasonable probability that the outcome of the re-sentencing proceeding would have been any different. See Evans v. State, No. 83-CR-2339 (Circ. Ct. for Baltimore County, October 20,1999). (PC-3). Evans filed an application for leave to appeal that decision, which this Court denied. See Evans v. State, Misc. No. 18, Sept. Term 1999. (CA-7).
In February, 2000, Evans filed a second petition for habeas corpus in the U.S. District Court, raising only the Brady claim. He sought leave from the Fourth Circuit court to file that petition as a successive petition and asked that the District Court treat it as a motion to reopen his original *366habeas corpus petition. (DC-2). The Fourth Circuit court dealt with that issue in the appeal from the District Court judgment which, in July, 2000, it affirmed, finding no merit in any of Evans’s claims. See Evans v. Smith, 220 F.3d 306 (4th Cir.2000). (C4-1). Evans sought review in the Supreme Court, which was denied. Evans v. Smith, 532 U.S. 925, 121 S.Ct. 1367, 149 L.Ed.2d 294 (2001). (SC-5).
In May, 2000, while the Federal appeal was still pending, Evans filed in the Circuit Court for Baltimore County a Motion to Correct Illegal Sentence and a Motion for New Trial. The first motion was based on an amendment to the death penalty law that took effect very shortly after the murders were committed. The amendment removed intoxication as a specific statutory mitigating factor and permitted a jury to find it as a mitigator under the catchall provision for mitigating factors. Evans claimed that constituted an unlawful ex post facto law. The motion for new trial was based on supposedly newly discovered evidence in the form of FBI interview reports that would allegedly impeach the testimony of two State’s witnesses that he was the person who actually shot the victims. Those motions were initially denied, but, while an appeal to the Court of Special Appeals from that ruling was pending, the court rescinded its order and scheduled a hearing. The appeal was subsequently dismissed.
In April, 2001, Evans filed a second motion in the Circuit Court to reopen the 1995 post conviction proceeding, claiming that, under Apprendi v. New Jersey, 530 U.S. 466, 120 S.Ct. 2348, 147 L.Ed.2d 435 (2000), the 1983 indictment that triggered the State prosecution was Constitutionally deficient because it did not allege either principalship or the aggravating factors upon which the State intended to rely. The motion also asked that execution of the death sentence be stayed pending completion of a legislatively commissioned study of the implementation of the death penalty (the Paternoster Study). A month later, before any ruling on that motion, Evans filed a second Motion to Correct Illegal Sentence and/or Motion for New Sentencing Based on Mistake *367and Irregularity. That motion was also based on Apprendi. On October 12, 2001, the court denied the motion to reopen the post conviction proceeding (Judge Turnbull) (PC-4), and, on December 14, 2001, this Court denied Evans’s application for leave to appeal that ruling. (CA-8).
On July 18, 2003, following an evidentiary hearing and consideration of supplemental briefs, Judge Kahl entered two orders denying the Motion for New Trial and the Motion to Correct Illegal Sentence. (PC-5). Evans appealed, and, in a 37-page opinion, we affirmed, holding that (1) the shift of intoxication to a catchall mitigator did not constitute an ex post facto law, and (2) the FBI reports, even if newly discovered, failed to create a substantial possibility that a jury would find that Evans was not the shooter. See Evans v. State, 382 Md. 248, 855 A.2d 291 (2004). (CA-9). Evans moved for reconsideration, which was denied. (CA-10). As usual, he then sought review by the Supreme Court and that too was denied. Evans v. Maryland, 543 U.S. 1150, 125 S.Ct. 1325, 161 L.Ed.2d 113 (2005). (SC-6).
Upon the denial of certiorari by the Supreme Court, the Circuit Court for Baltimore County issued a warrant of execution. That prompted a new round of proceedings. On February 28, 2005, Evans filed a Motion to Stay Warrant of Execution and a Motion to Correct Illegal Sentence, arguing that (1) his sentence was illegal because it emanated from a pattern of racial and geographic discrimination in the implementation of the death sentence in Maryland, and (2) the indictment that triggered the prosecution was Constitutionally defective under Apprendi v. New Jersey, supra, and Ring v. Arizona, 536 U.S. 584, 122 S.Ct. 2428, 153 L.Ed.2d 556 (2002). In March, Evans filed a separate motion to correct illegal sentence and supplemented the pending one, complaining that use of a preponderance of the evidence standard in the balancing of aggravating and mitigating factors violated various provisions of the Maryland Constitution.
A week later, the court entered an order denying all motions (PC-6), and Evans appealed. We affirmed, holding, *368first, that a motion to correct illegal sentence was not the appropriate vehicle to raise a selective prosecution claim based on the by-then-completed Paternoster Study, and second, that none of his Apprendi/Ring arguments had merit. Evans v. State, 389 Md. 456, 886 A.2d 562 (2005). (CA-11). His motion for reconsideration was also denied. (CA-12). For the seventh time, Evans sought certiorari in the Supreme Court, which was denied. Evans v. Maryland, — U.S.—, 126 S.Ct. 1442, 164 L.Ed.2d 141 (2006). (SC-7).
In August, 2005, Evans filed another Motion to Correct Illegal Sentence in the Circuit Court for Baltimore County, raising two issues: (1) that his attorneys at his 1992 re-sentencing hearing were Constitutionally ineffective because of their failure to investigate substantial mitigating evidence relating to his background; and (2) his death sentence was imposed by a jury selected in violation of the equal protection clause. The first complaint was based on Wiggins v. Smith, 539 U.S. 510, 123 S.Ct. 2527, 156 L.Ed.2d 471 (2003) and Rompilla v. Beard, 545 U.S. 374, 125 S.Ct. 2456, 162 L.Ed.2d 360 (2005). The second—essentially a Batson challenge—is based as well on Miller-El v. Dretke, 545 U.S. 231, 125 S.Ct. 2317, 162 L.Ed.2d 196 (2005). On December 15, 2005, Judge Kahl entered an order denying the motion, concluding that, under controlling decisions of this Court, those complaints, even if valid, did not make the sentence illegal. (PC-7). On December 29, 2005, Evans appealed. That appeal is now before us as No. 107.
On December 20, 2005, Evans filed a third motion to reopen the 1995 post conviction proceeding. That motion was based entirely on the Paternoster Study which, according to Evans, showed that the Baltimore County State’s Attorney’s Office engaged in unconstitutional race-based selective prosecution. On January 19, 2006, that motion was denied (Judge Turn-bull). (PC-8). Evans filed an application for leave to appeal, which we granted and is now before us as No. 123.
On January 23, 2006, Evans filed a fourth motion to reopen the 1995 post conviction proceeding in order to present the *369Wiggins and Miller-El issues presented in the motion to correct illegal sentence. On February 2, 2006, the Circuit Court denied that motion (Judge Turnbull) (PC-9) and Evans filed an application for leave to appeal, which we granted. That is No. 124.
On January 20, 2006, Evans, along with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Maryland, and Maryland Citizens Against State Executions, filed a separate action in the Circuit Court for Baltimore City seeking to enjoin the Division of Correction from using lethal injections to inflict the death penalty under its current execution protocol on the grounds that (1) the execution protocol materially conflicts with the State’s death penalty statute; (2) the protocol was not adopted in conformance with the Administrative Procedure Act; and (8) several of the regulations conflict with the specific directives of the Warrant of Execution filed in this case by Judge Turnbull. On January 31, 2006, the Circuit Court denied preliminary injunctive relief (PC-10), and Evans and the other plaintiffs appealed to the Court of Special Appeals. We granted certiorari on our own initiative (No. 122), stayed the warrant of execution that had been issued, and consolidated the four appeals. (CA-13, 14, 15, and 16).
Contemporaneously, on January 19, 2006, Evans filed an action in the U.S. District Court, complaining that the execution protocols of the Division of Correction create a risk that he will be conscious during the execution process and accordingly will suffer unnecessary pain. See Evans v. Saar, Civil No. 06-149 (U.S. Dist. Ct. D. Md.). He asked for a declaratory judgment that the Division’s protocols violate the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments and a permanent injunction barring the Division from using those protocols to carry out an execution against him. On February 1, 2006, the court denied Evans’s motions for temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction. Evans appealed to the Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, but when this Court stayed the outstanding warrant of execution pending resolution of the appeals now *370before us, he dismissed that appeal, and the case has been tried but remains open in the District Court. (DC-3).
In December, 2005, Evans commenced an administrative challenge to the execution protocols by filing a request for administrative remedy with the warden of the Maryland Penitentiary. When the warden denied that request, Evans appealed to the Commissioner of Corrections. The Commissioner rejected the appeal on February 27, 2006, and Evans filed a complaint with the Inmate Grievance Office (IGO). On June 2, 2006, an administrative law judge, acting for the IGO, concluded that (1) the execution protocols are not inconsistent with § 3-905 of the Correctional Services Article, (2) portions of them do constitute a regulation under the Administrative Procedure Act and are ineffective because they were not adopted in conformance with that Act, and (3) there was a material dispute of fact as to whether the condition of Evans’s veins will render the execution protocols, as to him, violative of the Eighth Amendment prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. The Secretary of Public Safety and Correctional Services rejected the second determination on June 27, and on July 26, 2006, Evans filed a petition for judicial review in the Circuit Court for Baltimore City. (PC 11).

. In order to keep account of, and distinguish, the various proceedings in which Evans’s complaints have been reviewed by a court, we shall label them by the court in which they were brought: CA (Maryland Court of Appeals); SC (United States Supreme Court); PC (State *354Circuit Court considering post conviction petition, motion to correct illegal sentence, or other collateral attack); DC (U.S. District Court considering habeas corpus petition); C4 (U.S. Court of Appeals considering appeal from denial of habeas corpus by. U.S. District Court).

. At the time, State law did not afford the option of life without parole. Evans unsuccessfully sought to introduce evidence that, if convicted of all the offenses charged and given consecutive sentences, he would not have been eligible for parole until he had served 39 years in prison.