Court Opinion

ID: 9703264
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 23:48:07.099594+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:21:46.966927
License: Public Domain

*306Brune, C. J.,
filed the following concurring opinion.
I concur in the result in this case because it seems clear that the appellant knew the informer and hence I believe that no prejudice resulted to him from the State’s answer to Item 2 in the appellant’s motion for discovery. By that Item the appellant sought to have the State “[fjurnish the defendant with the names and addresses of any special employee or informer used by the Baltimore City Police Department in the above-captioned case.” The answer thereto was: "Witnesses are listed in Answer No. 1.” No special agent or informer was listed in Answer No. 1. This form of answer, I think, carried the clear implication that there had been no special agent or informer. If there had been no such person employed by the City Police (he may have been employed only by the Federal agent without collaboration with the City Police) that could have been stated, and I think should have been stated without equivocation. If the answer was based upon the theory that the defendant was not entitled to that desired information, an exception to this Item should, in my opinion, have been filed. The State, I think, knew or ought to have known that a special agent or informer had been used. I think that a frank answer should have been given or a frank exception filed. The answer given seems to me to have operated as either a deceptive means or an inexcusably negligent means of avoiding doing either and of withholding information, depending upon whether the deception was due to design or to ignorance of a fact that should have been known.