Court Opinion

ID: 9764470
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 03:24:01.811948+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:29:57.284429
License: Public Domain

RODOWSKY, Judge,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent. The analysis by the Court of Special Appeals in Patrick v. State, 90 Md.App. 475, 490-97, 601 A.2d 1133 (1992), is correct, in my opinion.
The provision for disclosure by the State upon request of the accused of non-exculpatory reports or statements of experts, including the result of any scientific test, came into the Maryland Rules in the revision of former Chapter 700 (Criminal Causes) on July 1, 1977. That revision was prompted by the ABA Standards for Criminal Justice. I reject the notion that this Court, the Rules Committee, or the consultants to that committee ever intended that the “scientific test” referred to in the criminal discovery rule should include a lie detector test.
In connection with the revision of former Chapter 700, a Joint Committee of the Maryland Judicial Conference and the Maryland State Bar Association was appointed (the Joint Committee). It presented to the Rules Committee its Report and Recommendations to Implement the American Bar Association’s Standards for Criminal Justice (1974) (the Report). The Joint Committee commented on then proposed Maryland Rule 728 which, without material change as to the issue at hand, became in 1977 former Rule 741.b.4 and which, in turn, was carried forward into present Rule 4-263(b)(4). The Joint Committee foresaw that the proposal would operate as follows:
“[T]he defendant may obtain the results or reports of physical or mental examinations or of scientific tests, experiments or comparisons made in connection with the particular case, including the statements of the experts who conducted them. While this item of formal discovery *39is new to Maryland, it should not prove disruptive. The State’s Attorney already has the duty of disclosing test results that are exculpatory and has no interest in surprising the defense at trial with incriminating test results. Under present practice autopsy reports, ballistics tests and other test results covered by this Rule are generally available to the defense prior to trial. It is not intended that this Rule should affect the specific provisions in Sections 23 and 26 of Article 59 on the time of preparation and filing with the court of reports by the Department of Mental Hygiene on the defendant’s competence to stand trial and insanity at the time of the offense.”
Joint Committee, Report, ABA Standards Relating to Discovery and Procedure Before Trial 26 (1974).
Today’s decision goes well beyond the class of reports on autopsies or on ballistics tests. Thus, we now have the incongruous result that the “expert consulted by the State,” Rule 4-263(b)(4), includes a person who could not qualify in any case, civil or criminal, for the purpose of giving opinion testimony expressing the result of the “scientific test” in that person’s field of purported expertise.
Judge Karwacki has authorized me to state that he joins in the views expressed in this dissent.