Maryland Criminal Attorney Blog

Today in the case of State v. Campbell, Silverman, Thompson, Slutkin and White's criminal appeals lawyers convinced the Maryland Court of Special Appeals to reverse a Circuit Court for Baltimore County Judge thereby winning the freedom of a client serving a ten year sentence-without parole. The firm did not represent the client at the trial, but after the bad result, was retained to handle the appeal.

The Facts:

Baltimore County police see a drug transaction conducted from a Lincoln navigator. The police stop the buyer who says he bought drugs from the vehicle. The police lose sight of the vehicle. Four hours later, the police stop the car with guns drawn. The defense argued there was no probable cause to stop the vehicle four hours later because the police had no description of the sellers of narcotics four hours before. Judge Dana Levitz of the Circuit Court for Baltimore County said there was probable cause and sentenced the defendant to ten years without parole.

The Court of Special Appeals vacated the conviction and agreed that there was no probable cause to arrest the occupants of the vehicle when there was no reason to believe that the same persons who operated the vehicle earlier were occupying the vehicle at the time of the arrest. Criminal appeals specialist Erin Murphy briefed and argued the appeal.

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Today, the Maryland Court of Special Appeals vacated a murder conviction because defendant’s right to counsel violated.

Facts:

The victim was stabbed in Hagerstown Maryland. Based on a review of images captured by security cameras, Adams was a suspect. Adams fled the scene but was picked up on a parole violation in Baltimore. He was brought back to Hagerstown for questioning. He was advised of his rights per Miranda, executed a waiver and made inculpatory statements. Adams was then charged with first degree murder and counsel entered his appearance. Months later, the prosecutor asked the detective to serve on Adams the notice seeking life without parole. The detective went to the detention center. Criminal defense counsel was not present. After seeing the notice, Adams said “why is the state going after me so hard?” The detective said “because you stabbed a guy 32 times.” Adams responded that he only stabbed the guy seven times and then went into detail about where he stabbed him. Defense counsel moved to suppress the statements. The trial court denied his motion.

Ruling:

The Court of Appeals, citing Edwards v. Arizona and other cases, noted that there were no Miranda warnings given at the second meeting and therefore there was no intentional knowing and intelligent waiver of his right to have counsel of record present. The Court held that, under the totality of the circumstances, any reasonable police officer would have reasonably anticipated Adams would respond to the detective’s accusation and that regardless if the detective acted in good faith, this encounter was the functional equivalent of interrogation.

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