Criminal suspects might be trying to “destroy evidence” when they substantially alter their hairstyle after the crime, Maryland's second-highest court says.

Tagged with: concealment of evidence conscousness of guilt Destruction of evidence hairstyles Jury instructions

A judge’s television crime drama-inspired jury instruction that prosecutors need not present forensic evidence to prove guilt was a harmful error, Maryland’s top court ruled Friday in overturning a man’s robbery and assault conviction and 30-year prison sentence. In its ...

Tagged with: CSI forensic evidence harmless error Jury instructions

Maryland’s top court Thursday opens the public sessions of its 2020-2021 term, during which it will consider the constitutionality of Baltimore’s tax on billboard operators, whether a judge properly admitted into evidence the violent rap lyrics of an accused killer ...

Tagged with: billboards CSI first amendment free speech Jury instructions Mary Ellen Barbera rap lyrics tax law

Maryland’s top court will consider whether a judge’s television crime drama-inspired jury instruction that prosecutors need not present forensic evidence to prove guilt was a harmless mistake, given that the victim’s compelling testimony left jurors with no reasonable doubt that the defendant had robbed and assaulted her.

Tagged with: csi effect harmless error Jury instructions

A divided Maryland high court last week reinstated a man’s first-degree felony murder conviction, saying his attorney’s failure to request a jury instruction on the defense of alibi did not affect the jurors’ guilty verdict — even though four people ...

Tagged with: Adnan Syed. Sixth Amendment alibi defene ineffective assistance of counsel Jury instructions

ANNAPOLIS – Saying the jury was improperly instructed on the violent crime’s elements, a divided Maryland high court has overturned the first-degree child abuse conviction of a father who allegedly wrapped his son in plastic and tied his wrists to ...

Tagged with: child abuse expert testimony Jury instructions

State Sen. Nathaniel T. Oaks is asking a federal judge to include a jury instruction on entrapment in his bribery and fraud case.

Tagged with: entrapment fraud Jury instructions nathaniel t. oaks

Criminals seeking to overturn post-1980 convictions based on “advisory” jury instructions are out of luck if their attorneys failed to object at trial, court says.

Tagged with: Jury instructions Stevenson v. State Unger v. State

Criminal-defense attorneys say they have lost an arrow in their quiver of methods to challenge the credibility of prosecution witnesses who receive benefits in return for their trial testimony.

Tagged with: Jury instructions

A Maryland appeals court has overturned the conviction and 41-year prison sentence of a man accused of sexually abusing a pre-teen neighbor, saying he was denied his constitutional right to adequately cross examine the boy at trial and that the judge’s instruction to the jury improperly presumed a crime had been committed.

Tagged with: child sexual abuse cross-examination Jury instructions