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Ethics panel meets again on Currie
ANNAPOLIS — The Maryland General Assembly’s ethics panel has met again to consider a Prince George’s County senator’s failure to disclose work for a grocery store chain. The Joint Committee on Legislative Ethics met for about two hours on Tuesday. Members of the panel declined to comment when they left the meeting. On Monday, the […]
Small talk, peppered with challenges
I was at a networking event last week, carefully attempting to balance my plastic glass of wine while simultaneously eating enough of the hors d’oeuvres off my plastic plate to make it “dinner.” Just as I was stuffing a piece of bruschetta into my mouth, an older gentleman sauntered over and greeted me pleasantly. I […]
Top 5: ‘I don’t think I can choose from among my children’
The Court of Appeals dominates the most-read legal affairs stories of the week — and only one story is related to an opinion. Gov. Martin O’Malley appointed a new judge to Maryland’s top court, which also took the rare step of withdrawing a decision it made in October. A Daily Record investigation into the judges’ […]
Lawyer sanctioned for unauthorized practice of law while suspended
The Maryland Court of Appeals on Wednesday disciplined an already-suspended Baltimore lawyer for providing legal services to an immigrant during his application and interviewing process for permanent residency in the United States. The sanction came two days after Maryland Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler announced a crackdown on immigration consulting fraud. In a case brought […]
New trial ordered in 2007 Metro slaying
Maryland’s top court Tuesday unanimously overturned a young man’s felony-murder conviction because his confession came only after police had questioned the 16-year-old for hours and denied more than a dozen of his requests to call his mother. The Court of Appeals assailed as “deliberate and unreasonable” the seven hours Khiry Montay Moore was in custody […]
How to maximize your appeal
The adage that a legal case is only as strong as the lawyer arguing it is never more profound than when the case is before the state’s top court. The 30 minutes that a Maryland lawyer gets to argue before the Court of Appeals can mean success or failure for the client — and for […]
Court of Appeals begins new term Wednesday
Maryland’s top court begins its 2011-2012 term Wednesday with an air of mystery: Who will succeed retiring Judge Joseph F. Murphy Jr. on the Court of Appeals? Murphy, 67, announced in January that he would step down in August — about 2½ years shy of the mandatory retirement age of 70 — to work with […]
Tydings & Rosenberg seeks fees after Zorzit divorce
ANNAPOLIS — After an 18-month divorce battle, Baltimore County multimillionaire John Zorzit met privately with his then-wife, Julie, last August and reached a financial settlement to end their 16-year marriage. The agreement between the couple, which gained court approval, provided for no payment of attorney’s fees — to the dismay of Julie Zorzit’s counsel, Tydings […]
Top court sides with trial lawyer in separate cases decided on same day
Workdays don’t get much better than the one criminal lawyer Andrew V. Jezic had last Tuesday. The Court of Appeals issued two opinions in unrelated cases Jezic had handled at trial. In each case, the court found that an error by the trial judge had denied his client a fair trial. “Both deserve, in my […]
Prison guard’s accused killer seeks delay in trial
With another bid to end capital punishment in Maryland about to die with the General Assembly session, the intent of the lawmakers who passed a compromise measure to restrict the death penalty two years ago took center stage in the state’s highest court on Friday. The case marks the Court of Appeals’ first look at […]
State’s search for 1981 DNA evidence was sufficient
The state has searched hard enough to conclude that DNA evidence from a 30-year-old rape no longer exists, the Court of Appeals held Tuesday. George E. Blake, whose request for DNA testing from the 1981 assault led to a groundbreaking decision by the top court in 2006, was less successful this time around. In 2006, […]
Convicted child-killers seek third trial
Lawyers for two Mexican immigrants serving life sentences for the triple murder of their young relatives asked the state’s highest court on Tuesday to grant them another trial, their third. Policarpio Espinoza Perez and Adan Espinoza Canela say the second trial judge’s failure to properly disclose six jury notes was not just harmless error. It’s […]
