Adams v. State

4 A.3d 499, 415 Md. 585, 2010 Md. LEXIS 410
CourtCourt of Appeals of Maryland
DecidedSeptember 3, 2010
DocketNo. 13
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 4 A.3d 499 (Adams v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Maryland primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Adams v. State, 4 A.3d 499, 415 Md. 585, 2010 Md. LEXIS 410 (Md. 2010).

Opinions

BELL, C.J.

I.

Tracy Wendell Adams, the petitioner, was charged both with possessing cocaine and distributing it to a Salisbury Police Department police officer, who was working undercover, in Salisbury, Wicomico County. The drug transaction was video recorded, although, because he never went to the passenger side of the undercover vehicle, where the video camera was situated, only the voice, and not the image, of the seller was reflected on the videotape. The petitioner was tried by jury in the Circuit Court for Wicomico County. Officer Drawer, the undercover officer, testified as to the authenticity and the contents of the videotape and, upon his sponsorship, the videotape was admitted into evidence. With regard to the petitioner’s involvement in the drug transaction, he testified that the petitioner, whom he identified by description, in court and by photographic array, was the person who sold him the cocaine.

After all the evidence was in, the jury had been instructed and just before it was excused to begin deliberating, a juror inquired, “Judge Truitt, can we take the evidence with us?” The trial judge responded: “I’m going to send it in there.” The jury retired to deliberate.

Twenty-four minutes after the jury retired to begin deliberations, “the jury sent a note requesting to see the videotape that had been admitted as [an] [e]xhibit,” Adams v. State, 183 Md.App. 188, 201, 960 A.2d 1215, 1222 (2008), prompting the following colloquy:

“THE COURT: Mr. [Bailiff], you say you have a note.
[588]*588“[BAILIFF]: They want to see the video.
“THE COURT: No.
“[DEFENSE COUNSEL]: No?
“THE COURT: No.
“[DEFENSE COUNSEL]: Your Honor, if the video is part of the evidence—
“THE COURT: That’s right.
“[DEFENSE COUNSEL]: You didn’t want to let them look at it again?
“THE COURT: You want them to take all the witnesses in there and hear from them again? What’s the difference? Hearing none. Tell them they will have to recall or you can bring them in and I’ll tell them.
“[BAILIFF]: Bring them out?
“[DEFENSE COUNSEL]: Your Honor, that’s like saying you can’t look at a document again. It’s been admitted.
“THE COURT: It’s singling out testimony----
(Whereupon the jury returned to the courtroom.)
“THE COURT: [Jury Foreman], what was the question?
“[JUROR FOREMAN]: If we could view the tape again.
“THE COURT: You’ll just have to recall—
“[JUROR FOREMAN]: Okay.
“THE COURT:—what you saw.
“[JUROR FOREMAN]: Okay, that’s fine.
“THE COURT: I can’t single out any testimony. Then I’d have to let each witness come in.
“[JUROR FOREMAN]: Oh, I see. Okay.”

The petitioner was found guilty and sentenced to twenty years imprisonment. On appeal, the Court of Special Appeals affirmed the judgment of the Circuit Court, concluding that the trial judge did not abuse his discretion because the “trial court articulated an acceptable reason for refusing the jury’s request.” Adams, 183 Md.App. at 206, 960 A.2d at 1225. The intermediate appellate court elaborated:

[589]*589“[T]he trial court made a discretionary determination that allowing the jury to have the videotape of the alleged incident would overemphasize it.... [W]e are not persuaded that the trial court abused its discretion in making that determination.”

Id. at 205, 960 A.2d at 1225. We granted the petitioner’s petition for writ of certiorari, Adams v. State, 407 Md. 529, 967 A.2d 182 (2009), to answer the question: whether the trial judge erred in refusing to permit the jury to review the videotape of an alleged drug transaction which had been admitted into evidence. We shall answer that question in the affirmative and, thus, hold that, where, as here, evidence has been admitted and the trial judge has not made a good cause determination as to its appropriateness to be taken into the jury room, the trial judge abuses his or her discretion when he or she thereafter denies the jury the right to review that evidence in the jury room. Accordingly, we shall reverse.

II.

The issue to be resolved in this case is which section of Rule 4-326, “Jury—Review of Evidence—Communications,” applies when the jury asks to review an exhibit, which has been admitted into evidence, but has not been, although the court indicated to the jury that it would be, sent to the jury room. The question thus presented is one of Rule construction, the precepts of which are well established:

“The primary goal of statutory interpretation is ‘to ascertain and effectuate the intention of the legislature.’ Oaks v. Connors, 339 Md. 24, 35, 660 A.2d 423, 429 (1995). The familiar point of departure for statutory interpretation is the plain language of the statute itself. Stanford v. Maryland Police Training & Correctional Comm’n, 346 Md. 374, 380, 697 A.2d 424, 427 (1997). When construing a statutory provision within a single statutory scheme, we must consider the statutory scheme as a whole to determine the legislative intent. See Marsheck v. Board of Trustees of the Fire & Police Employees’ Retirement System of the City of Baltimore, 358 Md. 393, 403, 749 A.2d 774, 779 (2000); [590]*590Government Employees Ins. Co. v. Insurance Comm’r, 332 Md. 124, 131-32, 630 A.2d 713, 717 (1993); In re: Stephen K., 289 Md. 294, 298, 424 A.2d 153, 155 (1981). The same principles which are applied in statutory interpretation apply with equal force to our interpretation of the Maryland Rules. See Johnson v. State, 360 Md. 250, 264, 757 A.2d 796, 804 (2000).”

In re Mark M., 365 Md. 687, 711, 782 A.2d 332, 346 (2001).

At the time of trial, Maryland Rule Section 4-326 provided 1 “(a) Jurors’ notes. The court may, and upon request of any party shall, provide paper notepads for use by jurors during trial and deliberations. The court shall maintain control over the jurors’ notes during the trial and promptly destroy the jurors’ notes after the trial. A juror’s notes may not be reviewed or relied upon for any purpose by any person other than the juror. If a juror is unable to use a notepad because of a disability, the court shall provide a reasonable accommodation.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
4 A.3d 499, 415 Md. 585, 2010 Md. LEXIS 410, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/adams-v-state-md-2010.