Farrell v. State, 33

• Decision Date: 22 June 2001
• Docket Number: No. 33,33
• Citation: 774 A.2d 387,364 Md. 499
• Parties: David I. FARRELL v. STATE of Maryland
• Court: Maryland Court of Appeals

774 A.2d 387

364 Md. 499

David I. FARRELL v. STATE of Maryland

No. 33, September. Term, 2000.

Court of Appeals of Maryland.

June 22, 2001.

Benjamin J. Woolery (Richard M. McGill, on brief), Upper Marlboro, for petitioner.

Diane E. Keller, Assistant Attorney General (J. Joseph Curran, Jr., Attorney General of Maryland, on brief), Baltimore, for respondent.

Argued before BELL, C.J., and ELDRIDGE, RODOWSKY,¹ RAKER, WILNER, CATHELL and HARRELL, JJ.

ELDRIDGE, Judge.

We granted a petition for a writ of certiorari in this criminal case to determine whether the retrial of the defendant would violate the prohibition against double jeopardy on the ground that the defendant had previously been acquitted of the same offenses.

I.

David I. Farrell was initially charged by citations numbered OU396860 and OU396861 in the District Court of Maryland, Prince George's County, with exceeding the maximum speed limit and negligent driving in violation of Maryland Code (1977, 1999 Repl.Vol), §§ 21-801.1 and 21-901.1 of the Transportation Article. The case was set for trial on November 19, 1998, and, on that date, the case was called in open court before Judge Josef Brown.

Farrell appeared with his attorney and entered a plea of not guilty. After no witnesses appeared on behalf of the State, Judge Brown found Farrell "not guilty" and entered judgment to this effect. The State filed no motions or other documents in the citation case after the not guilty verdicts.

Twenty-eight days later, on December 17, 1998, the State instituted a new prosecution by filing in the District Court, Prince George's County, a second set of identical charges against Farrell by criminal information (MV Numbers S090785 and S090786). On January 27, 1999, Farrell, by his attorney, filed a motion to dismiss on the ground that the new charges were barred under established double jeopardy principles.

A hearing on the motion to dismiss took place on February 25, 1999, before Judge Patrice E. Lewis of the District Court. Documentary evidence was presented to the court showing that the offenses charged under MV Numbers S090785 and S090786 had previously been charged by traffic citations OU396860 and OU396861, had been called for trial on November 19, 1998, and had resulted in not guilty verdicts. The assistant state's attorney representing the State acknowledged that he had listened to the tape of the November 19, 1998, proceeding, and he conceded that "not guilty" verdicts were rendered on the identical charges at that time. The State, however, argued that the new charges should not be dismissed on double jeopardy grounds because there was a good reason why no witnesses appeared for the State at the trial on November 19, 1998. The assistant state's attorney represented that, in early November 1998, the State had requested a postponement of the November 19th trial date and that the State had been informed that the trial had been postponed. According to the assistant state's attorney, the police officer and other witnesses were not present at the November 19th trial because they believed that the trial had been postponed.²

The District Court held that, regardless of what the State had been told concerning a postponement, the not guilty verdicts rendered on November 19, 1998, required the dismissal of the new charges. The District Court dismissed the second set of charges, with prejudice, on the ground of double jeopardy.

The State appealed the dismissal to the Circuit Court for Prince George's County, pursuant to Maryland Code (1974, 1998 RepLVoL), §§ 12-401(b)(l)(ii) and 12-401(c) of the Courts and Judicial Proceedings Article and Maryland Rule 7-102.³ After receiving legal memoranda, the Circuit Court reversed the judgment of the District Court and ordered that the criminal information charges of exceeding the maximum speed limit and negligent driving be reinstated and that the case be remanded for a trial.

Farrell filed in this Court a petition for a writ of certiorari which we granted. Farrell v. State, 359 Md. 333, 753 A.2d 1031 (2000). Farrell argues that, under settled double jeopardy principles, the not guilty verdicts rendered on November 19, 1998, barred a subsequent prosecution for the identical offenses. He invokes both the double jeopardy prohibition of the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution and Maryland's common law double jeopardy prohibition. In connection with the double jeopardy prohibition under Maryland common law, Farrell particularly relies on Daff v. State, 317 Md. 678, 566 A.2d 120 (1989).

The State asserts that, because it had been granted a postponement, the original charges were called for trial on November 19, 1998, as a result of a "clerical error" committed by the clerk's office of the District Court. Thus, according to the State, the prosecution had no opportunity to present evidence at the November 19th "trial." Consequently, the State's argument continues, jeopardy did not attach at the November 19th proceeding, and the filing of subsequent identical charges did not place Farrell in "double jeopardy."

II.

As this Court has pointed out on a multitude of occasions, the double jeopardy prohibition protects a criminal defendant from successive prosecution as well as cumulative punishment for the same offense. It is applicable to criminal prosecutions in this State by virtue of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution and Maryland common law. See, e.g., Ware v. State, 360 Md. 650, 708, 759 A.2d 764, 794-795 (2000); Jones v. State, 357 Md. 141, 156-157, 742 A.2d 493, 501 (1999); Gianiny v. State, 320 Md. 337, 347, 577 A.2d 795, 800 (1990); Middleton v. State, 318 Md. 749, 756, 569 A.2d 1276, 1279 (1990); Daffv. State, supra, 317 Md. at 683, 566 A.2d at 122; Wright v. State, 307 Md. 552, 561-562, 515 A.2d 1157, 1162 (1986); Brooks v. State, 299 Md. 146, 154-155, 472 A.2d 981, 986 (1984); Ward v. State, 290 Md. 76, 81, 427 A.2d 1008, 1011 (1981); Block v. State, 286 Md. 266, 268, 407 A.2d 320, 321 (1979); Parojinog v. State, 282 Md. 256, 260, 384 A.2d 86, 88 (1978); Pugh v. State, 271 Md. 701, 704-705, 319 A.2d 542, 544 (1974).

"Perhaps the most fundamental rule in the history of double jeopardy jurisprudence has been that `[a] verdict of acquittal ... could not be reviewed, on error or otherwise, without putting [a defendant] twice in jeopardy, and thereby violating the Constitution.'" United States v. Martin Linen Supply Co., 430 U.S. 564, 571, 97 S.Ct. 1349, 1354, 51 L.Ed.2d 642, 651 (1977), quoting United States v. Ball, 163 U.S. 662, 671, 16 S.Ct. 1192, 1195, 41 L.Ed. 300, 303 (1896). See,e.g., Smalis v. Pennsylvania, 476 U.S. 140, 144-145 n. 7, 106 S.Ct. 1745, 1748 n. 7, 90 L.Ed.2d 116, 121 n. 7 (1986) ("The status of the trial court's judgment as an acquittal is not affected by the Commonwealth's allegation that the court" ..."`erroneously] interpret[ed] ... [a] governing legal principle'") (pitation omitted); Arizona v. Rumsey, 467 U.S. 203, 211, 104 S.Ct. 2305, 2310, 81 L.Ed.2d 164, 171 (1984) ("In making its findings, the trial court relied on a misconstruction of the statute ..., [however], [r]eliance on error of law, ... does not change the double jeopardy effects of a judgment that amounts to an acquittal ..."); United States v. Scott, 437 U.S. 82, 98, 98 S.Ct. 2187, 2197, 57 L.Ed.2d 65, 79 (1978) ("the fact that `the acquittal may result from erroneous evidentiary rulings or erroneous interpretations of governing legal principles,' ... affects the accuracy of that determination, but it does not alter its essential character"); Sanabria v. United States, 437 U.S. 54, 78, 98 S.Ct. 2170, 2186, 57 L.Ed.2d 43, 63 (1978) ("The trial court's rulings here led to an erroneous resolution in the defendant's favor on the merits of the charge. As Fong Foo v. United States, makes clear, the Double Jeopardy Clause absolutely bars a second trial in such circumstances"); Fong Foo v. United States, 369 U.S. 141, 143, 82 S.Ct. 671, 672, 7 L.Ed.2d 629, 631 (1962) (a defendant acquitted at trial may not be retried for the same offense, even if the legal rulings underlying the acquittal were clearly erroneous); Daff v. State, supra, 317 Md. at 684, 566 A.2d at 123 ("Once a trial judge has intentionally rendered a verdict of not guilty, a subsequent change of mind is prohibited"); Block v. State, supra, 286 Md. at 273 274, 407 A.2d at 324 (1979) ("an improper or defective exercise of jurisdiction does not deprive an acquittal of its finality. Instead, as long as the court rendering a not-guilty verdict has jurisdiction over the offense, the verdict is a bar to further criminal proceedings on the same charge").

As previously indicated, Farrell relies on both the Double Jeopardy Clause of the Fifth Amendment and the Maryland common law double jeopardy prohibition. We shall hold that the District Court correctly dismissed the new charges under Maryland's common law prohibition against double jeopardy. Therefore, consistent with our "established principle that a court will not decide a constitutional issue when a case can properly be disposed of on a non-constitutional ground,"⁴ we shall not reach the issue of whether the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments also required the dismissal of the charges.⁵

In holding that an intentionally rendered verdict of "not guilty" is final and precludes, under Maryland common law, any further prosecution for the same offense, this Court in Pugh v. State, supra, 271 Md. at 705, 319 A.2d at 544, stated: "From the earliest days, it has been clear that once a verdict of not guilty has been rendered at the conclusion of a criminal trial, that verdict is final and cannot be set aside. Any attempt to do so by the prosecutor is barred by what at common law was the plea of autrefois acquit. Thus, in State v. Shields, 49 Md. 301, 303 (1878), our predecessors declined to construe a statute as permitting the State to appeal a verdict of

acquittal, saying: 'It has...