State v. Woodson

658 A.2d 272, 338 Md. 322, 1995 Md. LEXIS 58
CourtCourt of Appeals of Maryland
DecidedMay 17, 1995
DocketNo. 83
StatusPublished
Cited by31 cases

This text of 658 A.2d 272 (State v. Woodson) 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
State v. Woodson, 658 A.2d 272, 338 Md. 322, 1995 Md. LEXIS 58 (Md. 1995).

Opinion

CHASANOW, Judge.

We are called upon in this case to determine whether double jeopardy bars retrial of a greater offense after a mistrial has been declared on both the greater offense, on which the jury was hung, and a lesser included offense, on which the jury reached a verdict but did not announce that verdict. For the reasons discussed below, we hold that double jeopardy does not prohibit retrial of the greater offense even though it may bar retrial of the lesser included offense.

I.

Thomas Andrew Woodson (Woodson) was charged in a four-count indictment with distribution of a controlled dangerous substance (Count 1), possession of a controlled dangerous substance with intent to distribute (Count 2), possession of a controlled dangerous substance (Count 3), and conspiracy to distribute a controlled dangerous substance (Count 4). Wood-son was tried on these charges before a jury in the Circuit Court for Prince George’s County, Vincent Femia, J., presiding. After all evidence was presented at the trial, the circuit court granted Woodson’s motion for judgment of acquittal on the conspiracy to distribute a controlled dangerous substance count (Count 4). The jury was then instructed on the remaining three counts and sent out to deliberate. The next day, the [326]*326jury submitted a note informing the judge that it had reached verdicts on two of the remaining three counts and that it was at an “impasse” on the other count. The court then asked the jury if it had reached a verdict on Count 1, distribution of a controlled dangerous substance. After the jury informed the court that it had reached a verdict of “not guilty” on that count, the court recorded that verdict. The court then asked the jury if it had reached a verdict on Count 2, possession of a controlled dangerous substance with intent to distribute. The jury informed the court that it had not reached a verdict on Count 2. The judge then gave the jury the Maryland version of an Allen charge 1 and sent the jury out for further deliberations.

Prior to releasing the jury for further deliberations, the court informed the jury that although the court had read its note stating that the jury had reached a verdict on two of the three counts, the court was “not going to ask [the jury] about Count [3]” because “the next count [the jury needs] to answer is Count [2].” About four hours later, the jury returned from deliberations and informed the court that it had no made further progress in its deliberations and was “irrevocably deadlocked.” The court thereupon declared a mistrial on both Counts 2 and 3 and discharged the jury. The court never inquired as to whether a verdict was reached on Count 3, despite the fact that the note submitted by the jury foreperson indicated that the jury had apparently reached a verdict on that count. Neither Woodson nor the prosecutor objected to the court’s failure to take the verdict on Count 3.

A new trial date was set. Before his retrial on Counts 2 and 3 began, Woodson filed a motion to dismiss Counts 2 and 3, arguing that double jeopardy prohibited retrial on both counts. He argued that the court’s failure to take the verdict on Count 3 amounted to an acquittal of that count and because Count 3 was a lesser included offense of Count 2, double jeopardy bars retrial of Count 2. The motion to dismiss was [327]*327denied, and Woodson was retried in a jury trial and convicted on both Count 2, possession with intent to distribute, and Count 3, possession. After his conviction on both these counts, Woodson renewed his motion to dismiss the charges, arguing that double jeopardy and collateral estoppel prohibited his retrial. The trial judge granted Woodson’s post-trial motion to dismiss both counts on the ground that the declaration of a mistrial without manifest necessity as to Count 3 prohibited retrial on that count and also prohibited retrial on Count 2 because it is the “same offense.”

The State appealed the circuit court’s decision to the Court of Special Appeals, which affirmed the circuit court’s determination that double jeopardy barred retrial on both Counts 2 and 3. State v. Woodson, 100 Md.App. 97, 103, 639 A.2d 710, 713 (1994). The intermediate appellate court held that at Woodson’s first trial, the circuit court “erred, as a matter of law, in failing to receive [the verdict on Count 3] and, instead, in declaring a mistrial on that count when there was no necessity or justification for doing so.” Woodson, 100 Md.App. at 101-02, 639 A.2d at 712. The court noted that the “law assumes that the untaken verdict was an acquittal because to do otherwise would be fundamentally unfair.” Woodson, 100 Md.App. at 102, 639 A.2d at 713. Thus, the court concluded that because the circuit court’s failure to take the verdict on Count 3 amounted to an acquittal as a matter of law on that count, double jeopardy bars retrial of Count 2, which is the “same offense” under double jeopardy law. We granted certiorari to consider whether double jeopardy bars retrial of a greater offense, on which the jury was hung, after a mistrial was declared on both the greater offense and a lesser included offense, on which the jury reached a verdict but did not announce that verdict.

II.

The Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution provides that “no person shall be twice put in jeopardy” for the same offense. U.S. Const. amend. V. The Fifth Amendment’s double jeopardy bar is applicable to the states [328]*328through the Fourteenth Amendment. See Benton v. Maryland, 395 U.S. 784, 787, 89 S.Ct. 2056, 2058, 23 L.Ed.2d 707, 711 (1969). Maryland common law double jeopardy principles also “protect an accused against twice being put in jeopardy for the same offense.” Gianiny v. State, 320 Md. 337, 342, 577 A.2d 795, 797 (1990).

The Supreme Court has stated that the double jeopardy bar affords a defendant three basic protections:

“It protects against a second prosecution for the same offense after acquittal. It protects against a second prosecution for the same offense after conviction. And it protects against multiple punishments for the same offense.” (Footnotes omitted).

North Carolina v. Pearce, 395 U.S. 711, 717, 89 S.Ct. 2072, 2076, 23 L.Ed.2d 656, 664-65 (1969). See also Ohio v. Johnson, 467 U.S. 493, 498-99, 104 S.Ct. 2536, 2540, 81 L.Ed.2d 425, 433 (1984) (explaining that the double jeopardy “bar to retrial ... ensures that the State does not make repeated attempts to convict an individual, thereby exposing him to continued embarrassment, anxiety, and expense, while increasing the risk of an erroneous conviction or an impermissibly enhanced sentence”).

The test for determining whether different statutory or common law offenses arising out of the same transaction are considered to be the same offense for double jeopardy purposes is the “required evidence” test. See Blockburger v. United States, 284 U.S. 299, 304, 52 S.Ct. 180, 182, 76 L.Ed.

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Bluebook (online)
658 A.2d 272, 338 Md. 322, 1995 Md. LEXIS 58, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-woodson-md-1995.