Dupree v. State
| Decision Date | 23 December 1998 |
| Docket Number | No. 21,21 |
| Citation | 352 Md. 314,722 A.2d 52 |
| Parties | Sean X. DUPREE v. STATE of Maryland. |
| Court | Maryland Court of Appeals |
Nancy S. Forster, Asst. Public Defender (Stephen E. Harris, Public Defender, on brief), Baltimore, for Petitioner.
Emmet Davitt, Asst. Atty. Gen. (J. Joseph Curran, Jr., Atty. Gen., on brief), Baltimore, for Respondent.
Argued before BELL, C.J., and ELDRIDGE, RODOWSKY, CHASANOW, RAKER, WILNER and CATHELL, JJ.
In this case Petitioner was convicted by a jury in the Circuit Court for Baltimore City of second degree murder and use of a handgun in the commission of a crime of violence. During his direct testimony, the investigating detective was permitted to testify, over defense counsel's repeated objections, that after Petitioner was arrested, the detective advised him of his rights pursuant to Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966), even though Petitioner had made no subsequent statement to the police. The Court of Special Appeals affirmed Petitioner's convictions in an unreported opinion. We granted Petitioner a writ of certiorari to answer the question, "If the defendant chose to remain silent when questioned by the police after his arrest, may the State elicit testimony that the police read the defendant his Miranda rights?" Our answer is in the negative. Because we conclude that the disputed testimony bore no relevance to any issue in the case and was highly prejudicial, we shall reverse.
On May 3, 1996 Hulbert Clark was returning from a local store with three friends after an afternoon of playing basketball in the neighborhood park. While walking eastbound along the 4000 block of Chesterfield Avenue in Baltimore City between six o'clock and six-thirty in the evening, Clark and his companions, Dwayne Green, William Roberts and Antoine Williams, were approached by Petitioner, Sean Dupree. Dupree exchanged greetings with the group and at some point shortly thereafter, according to Green, became engaged in "loud talking" with Clark.
Green testified that after a mutual exchange of "What's up?" with Dupree, his attention had been momentarily diverted from his friends but was drawn back by a "commotion" between Dupree and Clark. While unable to distinguish all that the two were saying, Green recalled that Dupree was saying "What's up, what's up" in a "tone of voice [that] didn't sound like a regular greeting." As Green turned back towards this commotion, he observed Dupree holding Clark in his chest area and pointing a handgun at Clark's head. Dupree pulled the trigger and shot Clark in the head. Green stated that Dupree shot Clark another two times, once as the victim was falling and again as his body hit the ground. The shooting took place less than two feet in front of Green. As Dupree turned toward Green, the latter fled to an alleyway where he remained momentarily until he was certain Dupree had left the area. Green then returned to the scene of the shooting. After seeing Clark's lifeless body and Antoine Williams kneeling down nearby in what appeared to be a state of prayer, Green ran to his house nearby "to dial 911." Green testified that at no point did he ever see Clark with a gun. Moreover, he reasoned that neither Clark's attire of sweatpants and a tee-shirt, which he had just put back over his torso only moments before the shooting, nor Clark's activity of playing basketball all afternoon would have been suitable to carrying a gun.
In his testimony, William Roberts reiterated Green's account of their returning from the local store along with Clark and Antoine Williams when Dupree approached and joined the group. Roberts further testified that he and Williams were walking ahead of the other three, with Dupree and Clark following together in the middle and Green trailing along directly behind them, when he heard three gunshots. He turned to see what had happened and observed Clark lying on the ground and Dupree running towards a nearby alley. Roberts then ran to Green's house and called Clark's mother to inform her that her son had just been shot. Roberts acknowledged on cross-examination that Dupree and Clark had been speaking to each other before the gunshots occurred but he was unable to distinguish what the two were saying. In addition, Roberts confirmed that he too had witnessed Williams kneeling down in prayer over Clark's body. Because he could not be located, Antoine Williams did not testify.
Detective Richard Petrey testified that, as the primary detective assigned to investigate the shooting death of Hulbert Clark, he responded to the scene within minutes and shortly received from a fellow officer the name of Sean Dupree as a suspect. Unable to locate Dupree at his home, the detective obtained a warrant for Dupree's arrest. On May 31, 1996 Detective Petrey had Dupree profiled on local television news programs as being wanted for murder. The next day Dupree turned himself in to the police. During Detective Petrey's direct testimony regarding his post-arrest interview of Dupree, the following occurred:
During the ensuing bench conference, the following exchange took place:
The assistant state's attorney then continued the direct examination of Detective Petrey:
Q. Detective Petrey, upon your first meeting with the Defendant did you advise him of his rights according to Police Department procedure?
A. Yes, I did.
Q. Would you advise the jury what you advised the Defendant of with regard to his rights?
A. Okay.
BY [THE PROSECUTOR]:
Q. Now, when you advised him of his rights was there anyone else with you at the time other than the Defendant?
A. Yeah, that would have been Detective Hoover.
During cross-examination of the detective, defense counsel pressed the point that the scene of the shooting had not been secured for a number of minutes before the first police officer arrived and therefore the area around Clark's body was subject to possible "tampering." In addition, the defense elicited from Detective Petrey that the police had not been able to locate Antoine Williams, the third eyewitness to the shooting (and the last person known to be near Clark's body before police arrived), since the summer of 1996, some nine months prior to the trial.
Dupree took the stand in his own defense and testified that he ran into the group while he was walking down the street. Dupree explained what transpired thereafter:
I spoke to them. They said what's up. I said nothing. That's when [Clark] turned, said bitch, you run up on me like that again I kill you. I said what? He said you heard me, nigger. What's up? So, he shoved his hand down his pants like so. He put his hands down, so he shoves his hand down his pants like he was going for his gun, so I grabbed mine and shot.
Dupree testified that it was this gesture by Clark and his seeing the butt of a black gun that caused him to react in panic by shooting Clark aimlessly with his own "22" that he had bought "off the street." After shooting Clark, Dupree dropped his own gun and ran. Dupree further related that all he knew about Clark was that he was from Atlanta and that because they "didn't have a relationship" Dupree "didn't know how to take him." Clark had made threats to Dupree in the past, Hence, he took Clark's threatening gesture seriously and "reacted accordingly."
During portions of his closing argument the prosecutor addressed the jury as follows:
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