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.

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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

ANNAPOLIS — The judges on Maryland’s top court were unusually silent Tuesday as an attorney for the state urged them to overturn their controversial 2012 decision that reopened courthouse doors to many inmates convicted of violent crimes before 1980. But ...

Tagged with: Jury instructions maryland court of appeals

Pham’s sentence for violation of a protective order by possession of a firearm must merge into his sentence for possession of a regulated firearm. We shall affirm in all other respects.

Tagged with: criminal procedure Howard County Jury instructions merger of sentences sentencing Sept. Term 2013 Wright

Mr. Betskoff raises two questions on appeal. He asks us to review his unpreserved objection to the jury instructions for “plain error” and contends that the circuit court erred in admitting the results of the field sobriety test.

Tagged with: carroll county criminal law evidence Jury instructions Nazarian reasonable doubt Sept. Term 2013

The State did not introduce evidence sufficient to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Mr. Jenkins used a handgun in the shooting; his conviction for use of a handgun in the commission of a crime of violence is reversed.

Tagged with: attempted murder closing argument criminal law handgun Jury instructions Nazarian Prince George's County Sept. Term 2011 sufficiency of the evidence

The instruction on transferred intent was “a square peg that never fit the round hole of the State’s theory of the case,” Judge Douglas Nazarian wrote for the three-judge panel.

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