Court Opinion

ID: 9650552
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 15:43:20.20938+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:12:23.376249
License: Public Domain

McAULIFFE, Judge,
dissenting.
I disagree with Part I of the Court’s opinion, and with the result. The doctrine of collateral estoppel prohibits the State from relitigating a fact that has been finally decided against the State in a previous proceeding between the parties. Ferrell says, and the majority agrees, that this record shows that the jury in the third trial decided that Ferrell was not the person who robbed these four victims. I cannot agree.
In the first place, the record that Ferrell presents for this Court’s consideration is insufficient to show much of anything about what occurred at the third trial. In the face of clear language by the Supreme Court in Ashe v. Swenson, 397 U.S. 436, 444, 90 S.Ct. 1189, 1194, 25 L.Ed.2d 469 (1970), repeated by this Court in Powers v. State, 285 Md. 269, 278, 401 A.2d 1031, cert. denied, 444 U.S. 937, 100 S.Ct. 288, 62 L.Ed.2d 197 (1979), that a court deciding a claim of collateral estoppel must “examine the record of a prior proceeding, taking into account the pleadings, evidence, charge, and other relevant matter,” Ferrell did not provide a transcript of the proceedings of the third trial. The majority refers to the “absence of a complete transcript,” when in fact we have virtually no transcript. At the direction of the Court of Special Appeals, the State furnished a few pages of transcript to assist that court in understanding the grounds for dismissal of certain other counts by the trial judge. Apart from that, as Judge Wilner pointed out for the Court of Special Appeals, no transcript was provided:
*258[N]o part of the proceedings of the third trial, save the few pages of transcript dealing with the disposition of Counts 2-7, furnished by the State in response to our order, has been included in the record. We don’t know, other than in a general way, what evidence was presented to that third jury; nor do we know what instructions were given or what argument was made to the jury.
Ferrell v. State, 73 Md.App. 627, 634, 536 A.2d 99 (1988).
More important, however, is this point — whatever the jurors in the third trial might have decided, we can be sure they did not decide that Ferrell was not the robber. Had they decided that, they would have found Ferrell not guilty of the robbery as well. It is absolutely illogical to conclude that the same jurors who unanimously foun4 that Ferrell was not the man who robbed these victims with a handgun would be unable to reach a verdict on the robbery count.
The majority apparently holds that because the State is unable to demonstrate exactly why the jury reached the conclusion it did, the defendant must prevail. That, I suggest, is not a proper application of the principles of collateral estoppel.
The Supreme Court has said that the relevant inquiry is “whether a rational jury could have grounded its verdict upon an issue other than that which the defendant seeks to foreclose from consideration.” Ashe v. Swenson, supra, 397 U.S. at 444, 90 S.Ct. at 1194. The Court cautioned that the inquiry must be approached “with realism and rationality,” and “must be set in a practical frame and viewed with an eye to all the circumstances of the proceedings.” The only practical and rational conclusion that I can reach upon consideration of all the known circumstances of the third trial is that the jury could not have concluded that which Ferrell argues it must have concluded.
I cannot be certain why the jury found as it did on the charge of use of a handgun in the commission of a felony or a crime of violence. It may have erroneously concluded that the defendant did not “use” the handgun because no *259one was shot. It may have felt that the State had not proven the gun involved was a “handgun” within the meaning of our statute.1 One cannot say, without speculating, why the jury reached the verdict it did. One can say, however, with confidence, that the jury did not reach that verdict because they found the defendant was not involved. I would affirm the conviction.

. A “handgun” is defined by Maryland Code (1957, 1987 Repl.Vol.) Art. 27, § 36F. The definition does not include all hand-held guns or pistols. See Howell v. State, 278 Md. 389, 395-96, 364 A.2d 797 (1976).