King v. State

249 A.2d 468, 5 Md. App. 652, 1969 Md. App. LEXIS 481
CourtCourt of Special Appeals of Maryland
DecidedJanuary 20, 1969
Docket135, September Term, 1968
StatusPublished
Cited by37 cases

This text of 249 A.2d 468 (King v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Special Appeals of Maryland primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
King v. State, 249 A.2d 468, 5 Md. App. 652, 1969 Md. App. LEXIS 481 (Md. Ct. App. 1969).

Opinions

Orth, J.,

delivered the majority opinion of the Court. Anderson and Thompson, JJ., dissent. Dissenting opinion by Thompson, J., in which Anderson, J., concurs, at page 674 infra.

The appellant was found guilty by a jury in the Circuit Court [655]*655for Dorchester County of the following offenses and sentences were imposed as designated:

Indictment No. 2183 — Storehouse breaking with intent to steal goods of the value of $100 and upwards; 5 years.
Indictment No. 2184 — Storehouse breaking with intent to steal goods of the value of $100 and upwards (1st count); grand larceny (2nd count); 5 years on each count to run concurrently on each count but consecutively with the sentence in No. 2183.
Indictment No. 2185 — Storehouse breaking with intent to steal goods of the value of $100 and upwards; 5 years to run consecutively with the sentences in No. 2183 and No. 2184.

On appeal from the judgments he contends:

I He was denied a speedy trial.
II The testimony of an accomplice was not corroborated.
III An oral statement made by him was improperly admitted in evidence.
IV The trial court erred in refusing to grant his request, made during the course of the trial, that his court appointed attorney be dismissed and new counsel be appointed to represent him.

I

SPEEDY TRIAL

Every accused within the ambit of the Constitution of the United States is guaranteed a speedy trial by its sixth amendment. Klopfer v. North Carolina, 386 U. S. 213; State v. Long and Nelson, 1 Md. App. 326. Every accused under the jurisdiction of this State is also guaranteed a speedy trial by Article 21 of the Maryland Declaration of Rights and, in addition to these federal and State constitutional rights, has a statutory right, under certain circumstances, to a trial within a specified time by the provisions of Md. Code, Art. 27, §§ 616A-616R pertaining to interstate detainers and § 616S pertaining to intrastate detainers. And by Md. Rule 709 an accused not indicted may [656]*656seek an immediate trial upon petition waiving his right to action by the grand jury, § a, whereupon the State’s Attorney shall immediately file an information against him (except in a case originating before a trial magistrate which is to be tried upon warrant) § b; when such petition has been filed the accused “shall be tried, without regard to term of court, within such reasonable time as to accord him a speedy trial.” § c. We have considered the constitutional rights to a speedy trial and discussed the rules of law relating thereto in a number of cases from Allen v. State, 1 Md. App. 249 to Frazier v. State, 5 Md. App. 88. In State v. Long amd Nelson, 1 Md. App. 326, we stated that the time within which trial must be had by the provisions of Art. 27, §§ 616A-S applied only to prisoners serving a sentence and against whom a detainer had been filed and held that there was no statutory direction, either directly or by implication, that all those accused of a crime must be tried within a specified time. But we have had no occasion to consider fully the provisions of §§ 616A-S or Md. Rule 709. The instant case, however, brings Art. 27, § 616S before us, as the appellant claims that he was not only denied his constitutional rights to a speedy trial but that a detainer was lodged against him for the crimes which are the subject of this appeal while he was a prisoner serving a sentence in a correctional institution under the jurisdiction of the Department of Correction, that he requested that he be tried and that he was not tried within the time prescribed by the statute.

The Intrastate Detainer Act

Chapter 628, Acts 1965, effective 1 June 1965, codified as Art. 27, § 616S,1 applicable at the time of the appellant’s trial on 7 March 1968,2 provided in relevant part:

“(a) Request by prisoner; statement from warden having custody. — Whenever the Department of Cor[657]*657rection receives a detainer against any prisoner serving a sentence in any correctional institution under the jurisdiction of the Department, any such prisoner shall be brought to trial within 120 days after the request of the prisoner for final disposition of the indictment, information, or complaint has been delivered to the State’s attorney of the City of Baltimore or of the county in which the indictment, information, or complaint is pending and to the appropriate court; provided that for good cause shown in open court, the prisoner or his counsel being present, the court having jurisdiction of the matter may grant any necessary or reasonable continuance. The request of the prisoner shall be filed within 30 days of the prisoner’s notification of any untried indictment, information, or complaint and shall be accompanied by a statement from the warden or superintendent having custody, setting forth the term of the commitment under which the prisoner is being held, the time already served, the time remaining to be served on the sentence, the amount of good time earned, the date of parole eligibility of the prisoner, and any decisions of the Board of Parole and Probation relating to the prisoner. The written notice and statement provided herein shall be delivered by certified mail.
(b) Duty to inform prisoner. — The warden or superintendent having custody of the prisoner shall inform the prisoner within 15 days in writing of the source and contents of any untried indictment, information, or complain against said prisoner concerning which the warden or superintendent has knowledge, and of the prisoner’s right to make a request for final disposition thereof.
(c) Dismissal when action not commenced. — If action is not commenced on the matter for which request for disposition was made, within the time limitation set forth in subsection (a) above, the court shall no longer have jurisdiction thereof, and the untried indictment shall have no further force or effect; and in [658]*658such case the court shall enter an order dismissing the untried indictment with prejudice.”

Obviously the objective of the Act was to assure a prisoner incarcerated in the designated institutions of this State against whom a detainer was filed on a charge to be prosecuted in this State, a trial on such charge within the time limitation upon delivery to the State’s attorney and court of the prisoner’s request. While the Act may be praised for its objective, it may be more damned for its provisions establishing the procedure to attain the objective. The provisions are vague, obscure and with one exception, lack sanctions to compel compliance with them.3 In our discussion of the Act hereinafter “indictment” means “any untried indictment, information or complaint against a prisoner”; “warden” means “warden, superintendent or county or city law enforcement officer having custody of the prisoner”; “statement” means the statement from the warden specified in § 616S (a) ; and “request” means the request of the prisoner for final disposition of the indictment.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
249 A.2d 468, 5 Md. App. 652, 1969 Md. App. LEXIS 481, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/king-v-state-mdctspecapp-1969.