Williams v. State

904 A.2d 534, 394 Md. 98, 2006 Md. LEXIS 480
CourtCourt of Appeals of Maryland
DecidedAugust 3, 2006
Docket121, September Term, 2004
StatusPublished
Cited by27 cases

This text of 904 A.2d 534 (Williams 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
Williams v. State, 904 A.2d 534, 394 Md. 98, 2006 Md. LEXIS 480 (Md. 2006).

Opinions

BELL, Chief Judge.

The dispositive issue in the case sub judiee is whether the defendant is entitled to a new trial as a result of a juror’s nondisclosure, during voir dire, of the fact that a member of that juror’s family was employed as a secretary in the State’s Attorney’s Office (“SAO”) that was prosecuting the defendant and when the relationship was not discovered until after the trial had been completed. This issue is one of first impression for this Court. A similar, but certainly not identical, issue has [102]*102been considered by the Court of special Appeals, however. It was first addressed in Burkett v. State, 21 Md.App. 438, 319 A.2d 845 (1974). In that case, the trial court voir dired the juror, albeit after the fact, with regard to the reason for the nondisclosure, concluding that it was inadvertent. The intermediate appellate court, in affirming, formulated a test:

“[T]he grant of a new trial, where information inadvertently is withheld by a juror’s failure to respond to voir dire inquiry, should be left to the sound discretion of the trial judge unless:
“(a) actual prejudice to the accused is demonstrated, or “(b) the withheld information, in and of itself, gives rise to a reasonable belief that prejudice or bias by the juror against the accused is likely.”

Id. at 445, 319 A.2d at 849. We agree with this analytical construct for the circumstances there presented. It does not, as we shall see, resolve the factual scenario that this case presents.

The appellant, Willard H. Williams (“Williams”), and his co-defendant, Kevin Jones (“Jones”), were charged with distribution of cocaine and related offenses and tried, by jury, in the Circuit Court for Baltimore City. During the voir dire process, the trial judge asked the venire, inter alia, whether:

“... any member of the panel, any member of your immediate family or household or anyone else that you’re close to and get significant advice from, been in the past, going to be in the future or are currently employed or doing business with or otherwise closely associated with any law enforcement agency? That includes the City Police, the County Police, the State Police, or any other kind of police. The attorney General for the State of Maryland or any other State, the State’s Attorney’s Officer [sic], Baltimore City, Baltimore County, and other State or District Attorney’s office, the United State’s Attorney Office for the Federal District of Maryland or any other federal district, Federal law enforcement agencies including but not limited to FBI, DEA, ATF, INS, IRS, Customs, Coast Guard, Military Police, NSA, CIA, Homeland Security or any other type of [103]*103outfit that either has a security function or has an investigative function? Also, include parole and probation agents, sheriffs departments, correctional officers and other employees of correctional facilities and people who work for private security companies, then be prepared to tell us about that when you come up.”

Juror 560, Ernestine Lane, as later discovered, was the sister of a secretary in the State’s Attorney’s Office. Nevertheless, she did not respond to the question. She had responded to other venire questions, however, as follows:

“The Court: Any information you’d like to share with us? “Juror 560: No.
“The Court: Ever been in a courtroom before — witness, juror, spectator?
“Juror 560: Juror.
“The Court: Civil, criminal or not picked? Did you have to award money or did you have to vote somebody not guilty or guilty?
“Juror 560: Award money.
“The Court: Anything about that experience that would cause you to be unfair to either of these two gentlemen or the State?
“Juror 560: No.”

Ms. Lane was seated as juror number four and served on the jury.

Both Williams and Jones were convicted of the crimes charged. When they were informed by the State of Ms. Lane’s familial relationship with an employee of the State’s Attorney’s Office, they offered the non-disclosure as one of the grounds for their motion for a new trial. Emphasizing the non-disclosure of the familial relationship — “the juror never disclosed that during voir dire” — and relying on Leach v. State, 47 Md.App. 611, 425 A.2d 234 (1981) and Burkett v. State, 21 Md.App. 438, 319 A.2d 845 (1974), to which he referred the Court, Williams argued1:

[104]*104“Both are similar situations where there were voir dire questions, information was obviously withheld or not disclosed and the Court says; the withheld information in and of itself gives rise to a reasonable belief that prejudice or bias by a juror against the accused is likely. I think in this case the fact that we did not know that this juror had a relationship with the State’s Attorney’s Office that it is reasonable and the presumption is that there was a bias. And based on that I would ask the Court to Grant my Motion for a new trial.”

The prosecutor confirmed that Ms. Lane was “the sister of one of the secretaries in my office,” but, because the he “ha[d] not asked Ms. Lane, ha[d] not called Ms. Lane, had any contact with Ms. Lane about the situation,” he was unable to respond to the court’s question as to why the juror did not disclose the relationship.2 No other information being avail[105]*105able, Ms. Lane was not called to testify as to the reason for the non-disclosure, the prosecutor submitted and the court denied the new trial motion, ruling:

“Well that’s pretty remote; a sister of a secretary in the State’s Attorney’s Office. If the Court of Appeals wants to grant a new trial on that basis they’re more than welcome to do it. We struggle in Baltimore with an electorate with less than a high school education, that is not very sophisticated, and doesn’t understand the simplest of questions. If the Court of Appeals wants to create laboratory circumstances and create precision in each trial, which pre-supposes that jurors will come in here that come in and understand simple English questions, or a defendant gets multiple trials at great expense to the taxpayers, let them do so. I’m not going to. Motion for New Trial is denied.”

Williams filed an appeal to the Court of Special Appeals. We, on our own motion, issued the writ of certiorari while the case was pending in that court. Williams v. State, 384 Md. 581, 865 A.2d 589 (2005). For the reasons that follow, we shall reverse the judgment of the Circuit Court for Baltimore City.

A.

The Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution,3 as applied to the States by the Fourteenth Amend[106]*106ment, guarantees criminal defendants an impartial jury trial. Attorney Grievance Comm’n of Maryland v. Gansler, 377 Md. 656, 675, 835 A.2d 548, 558 (2003); Jenkins v. State, 375 Md. 284, 300, 825 A.2d 1008, 1017 (2003); Ware v. State, 360 Md. 650, 670, 759 A.2d 764, 774 (2000). There is a similar guarantee provided by Article 21 of the Maryland Declaration of Rights.4 Bristow v. State, 242 Md. 283, 289, 219 A.2d 33, 36 (1966). See Gansler,

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Williams v. State
904 A.2d 534 (Court of Appeals of Maryland, 2006)

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Bluebook (online)
904 A.2d 534, 394 Md. 98, 2006 Md. LEXIS 480, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/williams-v-state-md-2006.