Court Opinion

ID: 9699772
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 20:50:55.959255+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:20:57.259227
License: Public Domain

*347BISHOP, Judge, dissenting.
I agree with the majority that the State’s argument with reference to reasonable doubt was improper and that the court’s failure to take some action was error; however, I do not agree that that error was harmful. For this reason I dissent.
As stated on page 343 of the majority opinion, when the police executed a search warrant on appellant’s apartment, they found appellant seated in the living room. The police recovered various amounts of cocaine including some cocaine that had been hidden in the sofa where the appellant was seated. Further, while the police were attempting to determine whether the cocaine was powder or crack, the appellant volunteered that, “it’s all powder.” Appellant told the police that he knew something was going to happen on that day and that “if I had lots of money, I wouldn’t be doing like this, selling dope.” The total amount of cocaine recovered from the apartment was over fourteen grams; 8.8 grams of powder cocaine and 5.3 grams of crack cocaine. In addition to the cocaine a small black case containing a hand-held scale, a scanner, a pager, and $415 in cash was found by the police.
Despite the fact that some cocaine was found in the sofa where the appellant was sitting; that the appellant was able to advise the police of the nature of the cocaine; that the appellant admitted to the police that he sold “dope;” and, that the amount of the cocaine recovered from the apartment was more than adequate to conclude that it was there for distribution purposes, the majority reasons
regardless of the strength of the case against appellant on the possession charges, as the prosecutor himself conceded in opening argument, there was no “evidence [i.e., witness] that says he [appellant] sold it [the cocaine found in his apartment].” A police officer did testify that appellant volunteered, at the time he was arrested, that, “If I had lots of money, I wouldn’t be doing stuff like this, selling dope.” On the other hand, the officer testified that appellant also assertedly said at some time that he did not “keep dope in *348his place” and “never sells out it.” The cocaine found in the apartment was apparently not packaged in small individual bags as is often the case when possession "with intent to distribute is charged. The defense emphatically asserted that appellant had not distributed cocaine and that there was no evidence that he had. Perhaps because appellant did not testify, his counsel heavily relied on the principle that his guilt had to be established beyond a reasonable doubt. In light of these facts, we cannot conclude that the error in permitting the improper closing argument was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt.
I find this reasoning specious. For example, the fact that the prosecutor in opening argument conceded that there was no evidence that appellant actually sold cocaine and subsequently asserted that he did not “keep dope in his place” and “never sells out it” does not in any way dispute the facts. The appellant did not contradict his statement that “he sold dope.” All that he said was that he did not keep it in his place and that he never sells it out of his place. The majority seems to believe that whenever a person is convicted of distribution that person must have in his possession the small individual baggies used in the sale of narcotics. Over fourteen grams of cocaine is available in one place for one reason only—to sell it. Clearly, the appellant was in possession of the cocaine. The emphatic assertion by the defense that appellant “had not distributed cocaine and that there was no evidence that he had,” used by the majority as a basis for its holding of harmful error, is not a fact but simply an assertion that most defendants charged with this crime make.
The majority cites Wills v. State, 329 Md. 370, 620 A.2d 295 (1993), and comments: “[t]he incorrect explanation of the reasonable doubt standard led the Court to reverse convictions of distribution and conspiracy to distribute cocaine, because the trial court had instructed the jury that a ‘nagging doubt’ was not a reasonable doubt.” What is not contained in the majority opinion is the following summary of the evidence against Wills:
*349The fate of Wills turned on whom the jury believed. The State adduced evidence tending to show that an undercover officer asked Wills whether Wills could procure three bags of crack for the officer. Wills said he could, walked over to another man and was given three bags of what proved to be crack. Wills disputed this account. He testified that he was framed and that the police account was a fabrication. A longtime acquaintance and distant relative of Wills testified that he had been told by a nark that the police were out to get Wills for selling drugs.
Id. at 388, 620 A.2d 295. Immediately the Court followed with its concluding statement that, “[i]n the circumstances, we cannot say, without reservation, that the erroneous instruction did not contribute to the jury’s guilty verdicts. Therefore, under the test we adopted in Dorsey v. State, 276 Md. 638, 659, 350 A.2d 665 (1976), the error was not harmless. Wills is entitled to a new trial.” Id. [329 Md.] at 388, 620 A.2d 295. (emphasis added.) It was not, as the majority contends, “the importance of the reasonable doubt standard that led” to the reversal in Wills, but, rather, the fact that the evidence showed only a one on one confrontation between Wills and the undercover officer plus testimony that the police were “out to get Wills.”
I believe that the order in which the Court set out its concluding paragraphs in Wills, at 388, 620 A.2d 295, is significant. First there was a summary of the relatively little evidence against Wills and then the conclusion that, based on that evidence, the Court could not say “without reservation, that the erroneous instruction did not contribute to the jury’s guilty verdicts.” It is clear, when comparing the amount of evidence in Wills with that in the case sub judice, that there was substantially more evidence against Rheubottom than there was against Wills. It was not only the importance of the reasonable doubt standard in Wills that brought about the reversal, but it was equally the lack of the overwhelming evidence that is present in the case sub judice.
The majority contends that “[t]he discussion of the reasonable doubt standard in Wills does suggest, however, that *350when, as here, the prosecutor misstates that standard, this is a particularly serious error that should be corrected as soon as possible by the trial court.” Wills did not involve a misstatement by the prosecutor, but rather an erroneous instruction by the trial court. The court’s failure in the case sub judice to correct the prosecutor’s misstatement is irrelevant, if harmless error beyond a reasonable doubt.
I believe that the improper statements made by the prosecutor and the judge’s error in failing to act were harmless error and, beyond a reasonable doubt, did not in any way contribute to the guilty verdict. The jury was advised that argument of counsel did not amount to evidence and that the jury was to make their decision based upon the evidence submitted and the instructions given by the court. Holding as the majority does in this case, amounts to giving to closing argument of counsel the same weight as the Court of Appeals gave to the Court’s erroneous instruction in Wills v. State, 329 Md. 370, 620 A.2d 295 (1993).
For the above reasons I dissent, and I would affirm the conviction.