Kranz v. State
Decision Date | 30 August 2017 |
Docket Number | No. 785, Sept. Term, 2013.,785, Sept. Term, 2013. |
Parties | William Louis KRANZ v. STATE of Maryland |
Court | Court of Special Appeals of Maryland |
Submitted by: Piedad Gomez (Paul B. DeWolfe, Public Defender, on the brief), Baltimore, MD, for Appellant.
Submitted by: Ryan R. Dietrich (Brian E. Frosh, Atty. Gen., on the brief), Baltimore, MD, for Appellee.
Panel: Woodward, C.J., Graeff, Berger, JJ.
Berger, J.William Louis Kranz, appellant, was convicted, following a jury trial in the Circuit Court for Cecil County, of two counts each of assault in the first degree and reckless endangerment. The court then sentenced Kranz to a total term of five years' imprisonment, to be followed by three years' supervised probation.
Thereafter, Kranz filed a petition, under the Maryland Uniform Postconviction Procedure Act, seeking to vacate his convictions on the ground that the State had committed a Brady violation—that, at the time of his trial, an Assistant State's Attorney in Cecil County, although not involved in Kranz's criminal case, was representing the two victims in that case in a separate civil action against Kranz, arising out of the same incident, but that that conflict had not been disclosed to the defense. The postconviction court ruled that the State had, indeed, failed to make a required disclosure to Kranz, but it nonetheless denied his petition on the basis that the State's nondisclosure was not "material" because it did not "create a reasonable probability of a different result."
Subsequently, Kranz filed an application for leave to appeal from that decision, which this Court granted. It, therefore, appeared that the issue before us was whether the postconviction court had erred in concluding that the State's nondisclosure was not "material" and, concomitantly, whether the postconviction court had applied the correct materiality standard under the facts of this case.1 However, unbeknownst to the applications panel, sometime after Kranz had filed his application for leave to appeal but prior to the granting of that application, Kranz completed serving his sentence, including the three-year probationary period.
In its brief, the State has included a motion to dismiss, asserting that, upon the completion of Kranz's sentence, this Court was divested of appellate jurisdiction and therefore must dismiss this appeal. For the reasons that follow, we shall grant that motion.
We quote the memorandum opinion of the postconviction court for factual background:
Kranz v. State , No. 07–K–06–000806, slip op. at 2–3 .
Kranz was sentenced, on July 31, 2009, to two consecutive five-year sentences for the first-degree assault convictions, the latter suspended, to be followed by three years' probation.5 He was thereafter released (apparently through operation of diminution credits, see Correctional Services Article, §§ 3–701 to 3–711 ), and his probation concluded on April 7, 2015.6 Thereafter, on August 31, 2016, his application for leave to appeal from the denial of his postconviction petition was granted. As we shall see, that timeline is crucial to our disposition of the instant appeal.
This appeal turns upon an issue of statutory construction, which is a question of law that we review de novo . Moore v. State , 388 Md. 446, 452, 879 A.2d 1111 (2005). The canons of statutory construction are well settled and begin with the "cardinal rule"—that is, we must "ascertain and effectuate the intent of the Legislature." Jamison v. State , 450 Md. 387, 396 n.9, 148 A.3d 1267 (2016) (citation and quotation omitted). "In ascertaining legislative intent, we first examine the plain language of the statute, and if the plain language of the statute is unambiguous and consistent with the statute's apparent purpose, we give effect to the statute as it is written." Id.
Maryland Code (2001, 2008 Repl. Vol.), Criminal Procedure Article ("CP"), § 7–101, the first section of the Maryland Uniform Postconviction Procedure Act, provides as follows:
(Emphasis added.)
That provision, known as the "custody" requirement, Obomighie v. State , 170 Md.App. 708, 712 n.2, 908 A.2d 132, cert. denied , 396 Md. 13, 912 A.2d 649 (2006) (citing McMannis v. State , 311 Md. 534, 539, 536 A.2d 652 (1988) ), "is jurisdictional in nature." Id. at 713, 908 A.2d 132. In Obomighie , we examined the application of that jurisdictional requirement to a person who, at an earlier stage of a postconviction proceeding, had been eligible to seek relief under the Act, but subsequently, during the pendency of that proceeding, became ineligible because he had finished serving his sentence. For reasons that will become clear, Obomighie bears closer scrutiny.
Obomighie had been convicted of assault in the second degree and sentenced to a term of eighteen months' imprisonment, all of which was suspended in favor of eighteen months' supervised probation. Id. at 710, 908 A.2d 132. While on probation, he filed a postconviction petition, but, before a hearing could be scheduled and his petition heard, Obomighie completed serving his sentence. Id. The postconviction court subsequently conducted a hearing and "entered an order dismissing the case for want of jurisdiction because Obomighie was no longer on probation." Id.
He filed an application for leave to appeal from that ruling, which this Court granted, and, thereafter, we affirmed the postconviction court's order, dismissing Obomighie's petition for lack of jurisdiction. Especially pertinent here, we noted that the "apparent conflict" between CP § 7–101, "which limits the scope of the title, and the jurisdiction of the circuit court, to persons imprisoned or on parole or probation," and CP § 7–102,7 which (subject to the ten-year statute of limitations, CP § 7–103 ), "on its face, permits initiating" a postconviction proceeding "at any time," was resolved by the Court of Appeals in McMannis ,8 which held, in effect, that the "custody" requirement of CP § 7–101 takes precedence over CP § 7–102. Obomighie , 170 Md.App. at 712, 908 A.2d 132. That is to say, " McMannis makes it clear that petitions may be ‘filed at any time,’ " but "only by persons who are either confined, or on parole or probation." Id. at 712–13, 908 A.2d 132. And that is true despite the fact that the purpose of the Maryland Uniform Postconviction Procedure Act is remedial, Douglas v. State , 423 Md. 156, 175, 31 A.3d 250 (2011) ; in other words, the remedies afforded by that Act are expressly limited to those who satisfy the "custody" requirement.9
In the instant case, we must resolve a different apparent conflict regarding which statute ( CP § 7–101 or CP § 7–109 ) governs appeals in postconviction proceedings. The latter statute provides in pertinent part:
(a) Within 30 days after the court passes an order in accordance with this subtitle, a person aggrieved by the order, including the Attorney General and a State's Attorney, may apply to the Court of Special Appeals for leave to appeal the order.
According to Kranz, this provision confers appellate jurisdiction upon this Court, regardless of whether...
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Kranz v. State
...the appeal.The Court of Special Appeals issued a reported opinion granting the State's motion to dismiss the appeal. Kranz v. State , 233 Md. App. 600, 168 A.3d 986 (2017). The intermediate appellate court opted not to address the State's mootness argument. The court instead rested its dism......
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Kranz v. State, 63
...the appeal. The Court of Special Appeals issued a reported opinion granting the State's motion to dismiss the appeal. Kranz v. State, 233 Md. App. 600 (2017). The intermediate appellate court opted not to address the State's mootness argument. The court instead rested its dismissal of the a......
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Kranz v. State
...thereby divesting us of appellate jurisdiction. We agreed and, in a reported opinion, granted the State's motion to dismiss. Kranz v. State, 233 Md. App. 600 (2017). Kranz filed a petition for writ of certiorari. The Court of Appeals granted the petition and ultimately reversed the judgment......