Grandison v. State

• Decision Date: 16 December 2005
• Docket Number: No. 16, September Term, 2005.,16, September Term, 2005.
• Citation: 390 Md. 412,889 A.2d 366
• Parties: Anthony GRANDISON v. STATE of Maryland.
• Court: Court of Special Appeals of Maryland

889 A.2d 366

390 Md. 412

Anthony GRANDISON v. STATE of Maryland.

No. 16, September Term, 2005.

Court of Appeals of Maryland.

December 16, 2005.

Reconsideration Denied February 3, 2006.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Jennifer P. Lyman, Assigned Public Defender, on brief, for appellant.

Annabelle L. Lisic, Asst. Atty. Gen. (J. Joseph Curran, Jr., Atty. Gen., on brief), for appellee.

Argued before BELL, C.J., RAKER, WILNER, CATHELL, HARRELL, BATTAGLIA and GREENE, JJ.

BATTAGLIA, J.

The appellant, Anthony Grandison, was convicted of hiring Vernon Evans, Jr. to murder David Scott Piechowicz and Cheryl Piechowicz on April 28, 1983 at the Warren House Motel located in Baltimore County, Maryland; however, because Ms. Piechowicz was ill, her sister, Susan Kennedy, who was filling in for her, was murdered in her stead. Grandison was convicted of first degree murder of both victims and was sentenced to death. This Court has, in four previous opinions, rejected Grandison's various challenges to his trial, convictions, and sentences.¹

In the present case, Grandison appeals from the denial of his motions for a new trial, to correct an illegal sentence, and to reopen his original post-conviction proceeding. Specifically, he raises three issues. Grandison argues that the State violated his due process rights under Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83, 83 S.Ct. 1194, 10 L.Ed.2d 215 (1963), regarding the suppression of evidence that he alleges is favorable and material to the determination of his guilt and sentencing during both his 1984 guilt/innocence trial and his 1994 re-sentencing proceeding. Grandison also asserts that his sentence under Maryland's death penalty statute violated his right to due process of law under Apprendi v. New Jersey, 530 U.S. 466, 120 S.Ct. 2348, 147 L.Ed.2d 435 (2000), and Ring v. Arizona, 536 U.S. 584, 122 S.Ct. 2428, 153 L.Ed.2d 556 (2002), because the jury was permitted to find that the aggravating factors outweighed the mitigating factors by a preponderance of the evidence. Finally, he contends that because he was convicted as an accessory before the fact to the murders, he was not death eligible. We reject the entirety of Grandison's current arguments.

Facts

The basic facts of this case have been summarized by this Court in Grandison v. State, 305 Md. 685, 697-98, 506 A.2d 580, 585-86 (1986), cert. denied, 479 U.S. 873, 107 S.Ct. 38, 93 L.Ed.2d 174 (1986), as follows:

According to the State's evidence, the defendant Evans and Anthony Grandison entered into an agreement whereby Evans would kill David Scott Piechowicz and his wife, Cheryl, because the couple were scheduled to testify against Grandison in a narcotics case pending in the United States District Court for the District of Maryland. Evans was to receive $9,000.00 from Grandison for performing the murders.

David Scott Piechowicz and Cheryl Piechowicz were employed at the Warren House Motel in Baltimore County. On April 28, 1983, Susan Kennedy, the sister of Cheryl Piechowicz, was working in place of Cheryl at the Warren House Motel. The evidence was sufficient to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that, on April 28th, Evans went to the motel and, not knowing the Piechowiczs, shot David Scott Piechowicz and Susan Kennedy with a MAC-11 machine pistol. Nineteen bullets were fired at the victims, who died from the multiple gunshot wounds.

A two count indictment was filed against Evans and Grandison in the United States District Court. They were charged with violating the Piechowiczs' civil rights by interfering with their right to be witnesses in a judicial proceeding, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 241, and with witness tampering, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1512.

Subsequently the present case began with a four count indictment in the Circuit Court for Baltimore County, charging Evans and Grandison each with two counts of first degree murder, one count of conspiracy to commit murder, and the use of a handgun in the commission of a felony or crime of violence. Upon the defendants' requests for removal, Grandison's trial was transferred to the Circuit Court for Somerset County and Evans's trial was transferred to the Circuit Court for Worcester County.

Additional background detail was provided in Grandison v. State, 341 Md. 175, 193-95, 670 A.2d 398, 406 (1995):

While Grandison was awaiting trial on the state charges, he was convicted in the federal court on both narcotics charges and witness tampering charges brought against him in connection with the murders. Thereafter, Grandison moved to dismiss the state charges on the ground that the federal convictions for witness tampering and civil rights violations and the sentences thereon constituted a double jeopardy bar to the pending state court trial. The trial court denied his motion, and on appeal of that interlocutory order we affirmed that judgment pursuant to the dual sovereignty exception to the Double Jeopardy Clause. Evans [and Grandison] v. State, 301 Md. 45, 481 A.2d 1135 (1984), cert. denied, 470 U.S. 1034, 105 S.Ct. 1411, 84 L.Ed.2d 795 (Grandison I).

(Footnote omitted).

In May of 1984, Grandison was tried in the Circuit Court for Somerset County on two charges of first degree murder, one count of conspiracy to commit murder, and one count of the use of a handgun in the commission of a felony or crime of violence. During that trial, the prosecution offered significant incriminating evidence against Grandison through a number of witnesses. The most damaging testimony was elicited from Charlene Sparrow, Vernon Evans's girlfriend at the time of the murders. Sparrow testified that on April 26, 1983, she accompanied Evans and Janet Moore, Grandison's girlfriend at the time of the murders, to the Baltimore City Jail to visit Grandison. Sparrow waited in the car while Evans and Moore met with Grandison and stated that when Evans and Moore returned nearly an hour later, the trio went to visit Theresa Purdie, the mother of Grandison's son, to obtain some money from Rodney Kelly, an associate of Grandison's. Sparrow testified that at Purdie's apartment, Evans, Moore, Kelly, and Purdie all spoke with Grandison on the phone.

Later that afternoon, according to Sparrow, she and Evans traveled with Moore to the Warren House Motel, where Sparrow attempted to reserve a room. Sparrow stated that she could not obtain a reservation for the night of April 26th because the motel was full. She did, however, reserve a room for the night of April 27th, which was corroborated by a registration slip from the Warren House bearing the same date with Sparrow's name and a room number on it. She reported to Evans that the Piechowiczs were not at the reception desk and described the security features.

Sparrow further testified that on April 27, 1983, after receiving a gun in a brown and white canvas bag and a car from Kelly, Evans and Sparrow drove over to the Warren House and Evans instructed Sparrow to wait in the car. Evans then entered the hotel with the brown and white canvas bag containing the gun. Some time later, Evans ran from the Warren House and told Sparrow to wipe off the gun, which she testified was smoking. Evans informed Sparrow that he was to receive $9,000 for the murders.

Other witnesses supplied additional testimony implicating Grandison in the murders of Scott Piechowicz and Susan Kennedy. For example, Theresa Purdie confirmed that Sparrow, Kelly, Evans, and Moore visited her apartment and that Kelly, Evans, and Moore all spoke to Grandison on the telephone. Calvin Harper, a friend of Rodney Kelly's, testified concerning the events that he witnessed when in Kelly's company on April 26th through the 28th, 1983. Harper further testified that he was present when Evans acquired the machine pistol used in the murders from Kelly and that Kelly told him that Evans had the gun to take care of some business. Etta Horne, who worked in the hotel in housekeeping, identified Evans as the man whom she saw sitting in the lobby of the hotel immediately preceding the murders. Also, Helen Kondilidis, a waitress at the motel's basement restaurant, testified that she entered the motel shortly before the murders and also identified Evans as the man she saw there.

On May 22, 1984, the jury in Grandison's guilt/innocence trial returned guilty verdicts on all counts. Grandison was sentenced to death on June 6, 1984 on both murder counts.

In Grandison v. State, 341 Md. 175, 670 A.2d 398 (1995), we summarized the subsequent proceedings:

On November 1, 1990, Grandison filed a petition, pursuant to Md.Code (1957, 1987 Repl.Vol., 1990 Cum.Supp.), Art. 27, § 645A, in the Circuit Court for Somerset County seeking post conviction relief. On July 31, 1992, the circuit court granted such relief, ordering a new capital sentencing proceeding on Grandison's convictions of first degree murder. Relying upon the Supreme Court's decision in Mills v. Maryland, 486 U.S. 367, 108 S.Ct. 1860, 100 L.Ed.2d 384 (1988), the circuit court granted the requested relief on the grounds that the sentencing form and related jury instructions employed at Grandison's first sentencing proceeding offended the dictates of the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution that the death penalty not be imposed where there are mitigating factors which may call for a less severe penalty. The circuit court also decided that Grandison was entitled to retroactive application of the Mills decision. The State applied to this Court for leave to appeal from the circuit court's grant of post conviction relief as to the death sentences, and Grandison filed a cross-application seeking review of the circuit court's denial of collateral relief on the underlying convictions. We denied both applications. Grandison v. State, Misc. No. 29, Sept. Term 1992 (order filed October 23, 1992). The Supreme Court denied a petition and cross-petition for writ of certiorari on March 22, 1993. Maryland v. Grandison, 507 U.S. 985, 113 S.Ct. 1581, 123...