September 2024 Maryland Certiorari Grants
On Friday, the Supreme Court of Maryland granted review in one criminal and one civil appeal.
Read More…Five for Five: Five Justices Conclude the five-year Limit to Modify a Sentence is Jurisdictional in a 3-1-2-1 Decision
By: Isabelle Raquin
On August 29, 2024, a three-justice plurality and a two-justice concurrence of the Supreme Court of Maryland (SCM) agreed in State v. Thomas, No. 15 (Sept. Term 2023), that the five-year deadline under Maryland Rule 4-345(e)(1) for a circuit court to hear a motion to modify a sentence was a self-imposed jurisdictional deadline per the court’s rule-making authority. Previously, the SCM had held, in the context of the 30-day time to file a notice of appeal, that a deadline established by the SCM’s rule-making authority is a mandatory claims processing rule; which, of course, the parties may waive or forfeit without divesting the court of the power to act. In reliance on the logical application of the mandatory claims processing rule to the court-imposed five-year time for a circuit court to hold a hearing under Rule 4-345(e)(1), Mr. Thomas appealed the circuit court’s failure to timely schedule a hearing as requested, and its subsequent denial of the motion to modify once the deadline passed.
Read More…Hollins v. State and the Jury’s Role
Tomorrow the Supreme Court of Maryland hears argument in Hollins v. State. Question 1 asks: “Did the ACM erroneously apply a sufficiency of the evidence standard instead of the ‘some evidence’ standard when it upheld the denial of Petitioner’s request for a non-pattern jury instruction regarding the alleged victim’s propensity for violence?”
Denying a criminal jury instruction, on an issue that the defendant seeks to submit to the jury, has the same practical effect that a grant of partial summary judgment has in a civil case. It keeps an issue from the jury, based on a finding that there is not enough evidence for a reasonable jury to rule for the party who seeks to submit the issue to the jury.
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Maryland Appellate Blog 