Hicks v. State

Decision Date13 June 1961
Docket NumberNo. 295,295
Citation225 Md. 560,171 A.2d 722
PartiesJohn Anthony HICKS, Jr., v. STATE of Maryland.
CourtMaryland Court of Appeals

Francis X. Pugh, Baltimore, Md., for appellant.

Louis E. Schmidt, Sp. Asst. Atty. Gen. (Thomas B. Finan, Atty. Gen., Joseph S Kaufman, Deputy Atty. Gen., Saul A. Harris and Russell J. White, State's Atty., and Asst. State's Atty., respectively, for Baltimore City, Baltimore, on the brief), for appellee.

Before BRUNE, C. J., and HENDERSON, PRESCOTT, HORNEY and MARBURY, JJ.

PER CURIAM.

The appellant, a teen-age youth, was convicted, in the Criminal Court of Baltimore, of robbery, and sentenced to serve not more than five years in the Maryland State Reformatory for Males.

The only question raised is an alleged insufficiency of evidence to support the finding of guilt. The contention is so patently frivolous that it amounts to no more than another obvious illustration of the 'nothing-to-lose philosophy' resorted to so frequently by indigent defendants since the decision in the case of Griffin v. People of State of Illinois, 351 U.S. 12, 76 S.Ct. 585, 100 L.Ed. 891.

Since the function of this Court on an appeal of this nature has been so frequently stated and restated, it will be unnecessary to repeat it again. Clay v. State, 211 Md. 577, 128 A.2d 634, is one of the numerous cases wherein the rule is stated. See also Maryland Rule 741 c.

There was testimony to the effect that the prosecuting witness, one Walter Douglas, was accosted by two young men while walking to a restaurant, struck in the mouth, and robbed of his wallet, the money contained therein, his keys and a package of cigarettes. As the two young men fled from the scene of the robbery, Douglas blew a whistle which he had in his possession. The whistle alerted two police officers, who were cruising in a patrol car in the vicinity. These officers observed two young men running down a street, about two and one-half blocks from whether the robbery had occurred. The young men stopped under a spot-light on a housing project, and examined the contents of a wallet. As the officers approached them, one of the men, the appellant's codefendant, dropped the wallet, and both proceeded to walk down the street. As the officers came closer, the appellant dropped a package of Camel cigarettes, the same brand of cigarettes that had been taken from Douglas. The two men were placed under arrest and taken back to the location of the spotlight where Douglas' wallet and...

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5 cases
  • Price v. State
    • United States
    • Maryland Court of Appeals
    • November 17, 1961
    ...therefore, his findings based upon the evidence as to what occurred are not to be set aside by us. Maryland Rule 741 c; Hicks v. State, 225 Md. 560, 561, 171 A.2d 722; Reed v. State, 225 Md. 566, 573, 171 A.2d 464; Dyson v. State, supra, 226 Md. at 20-21, 171 A.2d 505 (to cite only three of......
  • Crumb v. State
    • United States
    • Court of Special Appeals of Maryland
    • March 14, 1967
    ...of the defendant by the victim was for the trial court to determine. Watkins v. State, 237 Md. 357, 206 A.2d 568 (1965); Hicks v. State, 225 Md. 560, 171 A.2d 722 (1961). The identification of an accused by a single eye-witness has often been held sufficient to sustain a conviction. Coates ......
  • Gunn v. State
    • United States
    • Court of Special Appeals of Maryland
    • June 17, 1968
    ...disturbed on appeal in the absence of clear error. We see no such error. See Watkins v. State, 237 Md. 357, 206 A.2d 568; Hicks v. State, 225 Md. 560, 171 A.2d 722; Logan v. State, 1 Md.App. 213, 228 A.2d 837; Carroll v. State, 3 Md.App. 50, 237 A.2d 535; Crumb v. State, 1 Md.App. 98, 227 A......
  • Watkins v. State
    • United States
    • Maryland Court of Appeals
    • February 2, 1965
    ...the customer to the effect that the defendant was not at the scene of the holdup, was for the trial court to determine. Hicks v. State, 225 Md. 560, 171 A.2d 722 (1961). See also Hursey v. State, 233 Md. 243, 196 A.2d 472 (1964); Dyson v. State, 226 Md. 18, 171 A.2d 505 (1961), cert. den. 3......
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