Court Opinion

ID: 9699143
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 20:11:34.418773+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:20:46.876279
License: Public Domain

Hammond, J.,
filed the following dissenting opinion.
I dissented from the reversal in this case because to me the probability that there was any prejudice to the defendant in the remarks of the State’s Attorney as to parole was, on the record, so slight as to be almost nil.
The State’s Attorney, Blair Smith, said to the jury in the early part of the opening argument, referring to the State: “[W]e carry the burden of proof in every criminal case, and it never shifts. We must prove everything beyond a reasonable *475doubt, all elements oí the crime.” Eater in his argument, after discussing the evidence, he told the jury that the offense of rape carried a possible death penalty but that the State was not asking this penalty. He then read Sec. 463 of Art. 27 of the Code (1957) as follows: “The jury which finds any person guilty of rape * * * may add to their verdict the words ‘without capital punishment,’ in which event the sentence of the court shall not exceed twenty years in the penitentiary,” and then added: “So if this jury were to feel that this man is guilty and if this jury were to recommend mercy without capital punishment, the punishment of this man could not exceed twenty years.”
There was then an objection by counsel for the defendant, which was overruled, and the State’s Attorney continued, telling the jury that after a convicted man has served one-third of his term: “[I]t shall be the duty of the parole board to bring this man up for consideration for parole. So after six and a third years this man must come up for consideration for parole” (emphasis added), and then said: “[I]f you recommend ‘without capital punishment’ the court has no alternative than to give him from eighteen months to twenty years.” This was all that was said on the matter of sentence in the opening argument.
The State’s Attorney did no more than tell the jury the law of Maryland, a State where the jury is the judge of both the law and the facts, and his statements were neither incorrect nor inaccurate. His suggestion was that there would have to be consideration of parole, not that parole necessarily would be granted.
When the defense counsel made his appeal to the jury, he said that in deciding whether or not the accused had committed the crime, they must consider that he might possibly be executed or “interred in a prison or penitentiary for a good many years, if not the rest of his natural life.” Ele then said: “But this boy is at the bar of justice. If you find him not guilty you send him home to his wife and child a penitent man who has learned a very bitter lesson * * *. You either want to incarcerate him for a long number of years or you want to send him home to his wife. It is a cute trick for Mr. Smith to say *476T don’t want the death sentence; just give him twenty years.’ I wonder how Blair Smith would feel if he spent four or five days in jail, or four or five years, or perhaps the rest of his life. It isn’t that easy.”
The closing argument for the State was made hy an Assistant State’s Attorney, Mr. Smith having been excused at the close of his agrument to try another case. The Assistant State’s Attorney said, after commenting on the defense counsel’s argument and referring to the facts: “Basically, of course, in considering the guilt or innocence of anyone, you do not consider as an element of the crime as to what his penalty may he. Mr. Smith told you he was not asking the supreme penalty. And I think that is because she was not permanently mutilated physically. * * * and this was not an extremely violent crime. So if I were in your position, when I would come out I would have a finding of guilty, and say ‘without capital punishment,’ because I don’t think that this is the type of case that merits the death penalty. Even in rape we have different degrees of severity, and that is why the law is so elastic. But primarily, the penalty is not for your consideration. It is all right that you should know what is involved. You can get as little as eighteen months, or you can get up to twenty years.” (Emphasis added.)
It would seem clear that such emotional appeal to the jury on the possible shortness or length of sentence as there was in the opening argument for the State and the argument of the defense counsel offset each other. The closing argument of the State made it crystal clear to the jury that the State’s contention was that the matter of the penalty was not for the jury to consider, but only the question of guilt or innocence, although it was proper for the jury to know the minimum and maximum sentence that could be imposed.
I can see no prejudice to the defendant in what transpired and would affirm the judgment and sentence appealed from.