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DONTA BROOKS v. STATE OF MARYLAND
DONTA BROOKS v. STATE OF MARYLAND
Listen to this articleCriminal procedure — Illegal sentence — Three life sentences
On January 14, 1999, appellant Donta Brooks appeared in the Circuit Court for Baltimore City and, pursuant to a binding plea agreement, pleaded guilty to: two counts of first-degree murder, one count of attempted first-degree murder, one count of seconddegree assault, and two counts of use of a handgun in the commission of a crime of violence. On March 25, 1999, the court sentenced Brooks to three concurrent life sentences for the two counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted first-degree murder, ten years concurrent for second-degree assault, and twenty years concurrent for the two counts of use of a handgun in the commission of a crime of violence. On March 16, 2017, Brooks, representing himself, filed a Motion to Correct Illegal Sentence and Request for a Hearing in which he alleged that his sentence was unconstitutional. On September 13, 2017, the Maryland Office of the Public Defender filed a supplement to Brooks’s motion. Following a hearing on September 19, 2017, the court denied Brooks’s motion. Brooks timely appealed, and presents the following question for our review: “Are the three life sentences now being served by [Brooks] unconstitutional?” As we shall explain, Carter v. State, 461 Md. 295 (2018), reconsideration denied (Oct. 4, 2018), mandates that we …
