Moore v. State, 28, September Term, 2004.

Decision Date14 December 2005
Docket NumberNo. 28, September Term, 2004.,28, September Term, 2004.
PartiesFrederick James MOORE v. STATE of Maryland.
CourtCourt of Special Appeals of Maryland

Julia M. Kazaks, Assigned Public Defender (W. Bradley Ney, Albert H. Turkus, and Kenneth W. Gideon of Washington, D.C.) on brief, for petitioner/cross-respondent.

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

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

RAKER, Judge.

Petitioner, Frederick James Moore, was convicted by a jury in the Circuit Court for Howard County of first degree murder of Ashley Nicole Mason. Prior to trial, the State conducted DNA analysis on evidence found at the scene of the crime, and petitioner, who was represented by private counsel but for purposes of the motion was conceded to be indigent, requested state-funded expert assistance in the field of DNA analysis to prepare his defense. The trial court denied petitioner's motion on the grounds that the Office of the Public Defender was not required to pay for an expert when a defendant is represented by private counsel, and that the trial court had no funds to pay for an expert. The Court of Special Appeals affirmed. Moore v. State, 154 Md.App. 578, 841 A.2d 31 (2004). We granted Moore's petition for a writ of certiorari, to consider the following questions:

I. Is a criminal defendant who is unable to afford the assistance of a DNA expert, but who has retained private counsel using his limited personal funds, entitled to public funding for expert assistance under Article 27A of the Maryland Code where the most extensive testimony offered against the defendant at trial was that of the State's DNA expert?

II. Is a criminal defendant who is unable to afford the assistance of a DNA expert, but who has retained private counsel using his limited personal funds, entitled to public funding for expert assistance under the United States and Maryland Constitutions where the most extensive testimony offered against the defendant at trial was that of the State's DNA expert?

III. Did the ruling below improperly limit this Court's decision in Sessoms v State, 357 Md. 274, 744 A.2d 9 (2000), by denying [petitioner] the opportunity to introduce evidence relating to the past violent acts of a separately tried co-defendant, where [petitioner's] trial centered on the relative roles of [petitioner] and that co-defendant and [petitioner]'s theory of the case was that the co-defendant committed the murder alone?

Moore v. State, 381 Md. 674, 851 A.2d 593 (2004). We granted the State's conditional cross-petition, containing the following questions:

I. Assuming arguendo that a defendant who has paid for a private attorney using his own funds could, under some circumstances, be considered "indigent" for constitutional or statutory purposes, did Moore fail to establish: (1) his indigence in this case, or (2) that a substantial question existed requiring the testimony of a defense DNA expert or that his defense could not be developed without such testimony?

II. Even assuming arguendo that the trial court erred in declining to order either the Office of the Public Defender or the Circuit Court for Howard County to provide funds to obtain the testimony of Moore's DNA expert, was such error harmless beyond a reasonable doubt where the DNA evidence was essentially cumulative to evidence from other sources and where there was overwhelming non-DNA evidence establishing Moore's guilt?

III. Is Moore's complaint regarding the exclusion of evidence unpreserved for appellate review where there was no proffer regarding the contents of the evidence and where one of the witnesses Moore wished to cross-examine about alleged prior assaults by his co-defendant answered "no" when asked if the co-defendant had assaulted her?

I. Facts

On the morning of November 3, 2000, a delivery driver discovered a pool of blood in the parking lot of a Howard County restaurant. Following a bloody trail into the woods, he discovered the lifeless body of fourteen-year-old Ashley Nicole Mason. The medical examiner later determined the cause of Mason's death to have been multiple stab wounds and strangulation.

Petitioner and Scott Jory Brill were indicted by the Grand Jury for Howard County for the murder.1 Pursuant to Md. Code (1974, 1998 Repl.Vol., 2000 Cum. Supp.), § 10-915(c) of the Courts and Judicial Proceedings Article,2 the State served Moore with a timely Notice of Intention to Introduce DNA Evidence. The State provided Moore with documents produced by Cellmark Diagnostics, Inc. ("Cellmark"), detailing results obtained by Cellmark in its laboratory analysis of evidence recovered from the crime scene.

Moore filed a motion captioned "Defendant's Motion To Have the Circuit Court for Howard County or the Office of the Public Defender Provide Financial Aid to the Defendant for the Purpose of Providing a DNA Expert to Testify for the Defendant" (Funding Motion). In addition to asserting Moore's inability to pay for the services of a DNA expert3, the Funding Motion contained the following statements:

"1. That the defendant is charged with a very serious offense of murder in the first degree.

2. That at no time did the defendant, Frederick Moore, give a statement implicating himself in the offense.

* * *

5. That . . . defendant's mother, Anita Moore, was able to scrape together $1000.00, said funds which were paid to J. Thomas McClintock, Ph.D., a microbiologist and molecular biologist as well as an expert in the field of DNA testing.

6. That counsel for defendant sent to Dr. McClintock all of the materials sent to counsel by the Office of the State's Attorney for Dr. McClintock to review.

7. That after his review of the materials, Dr. McClintock provided defendant's counsel with a preliminary opinion regarding the DNA testing used in the case against Frederick Moore.

* * *

10. That the defendant believes he would be seriously prejudiced if the Court were to deny his request.

11. That the defendant believes that, BUT FOR THE FACT THAT HE IS POOR AND COMES FROM A POOR FAMILY, he would be able to hire the DNA expert which the defendant and his counsel believe would be extremely important to help explain to the jury that there are two sides to every DNA test result.

12. That the defendant believes that it is prejudicial to him if he is denied the right to have an expert witness testify on his behalf while the State is allowed to have an expert witness even though counsel for the State is not required to pay for the services of the DNA expert.

13. That counsel for defendant filed with the Honorable Court a Motion to Suppress DNA evidence and as part of the memorandum in support of his motion, counsel for defendant listed a number of areas in which mistakes can be made by the State's expert. That unless counsel for the defendant is allowed to have an expert to support the defendant's contention, the defendant will be unjustly prejudiced."

In the Suppression Motion to which Moore refers in paragraph 13 of the Funding Motion, Moore stated, in pertinent part:

"9. According to the FBI standards, which have not been established as proof beyond a reasonable doubt to show guilt, nine of thirteen loci are necessary to establish proof, although again NOT BEYOND A REASONABLE DOUBT, to show that the DNA recovered at a scene of a crime is associated to a particular GROUP of individuals rather than a specific individual. In fact, when providing results, so called experts of DNA testing will state, among other things, that a person CAN NOT BE EXCLUDED as the person providing the DNA. At no time can the DNA expert state conclusively that DNA evidence can be linked conclusively to any particular person or that a particular person was present at the scene of the crime.

10. That according to the results of the DNA testing, either Scott Brill or Frederick Moore could be included as the provider of the DNA found at the scene of the crime but the results do not state conclusively that Frederick Moore was present at the scene of the crime or that the DNA was conclusively the DNA of Frederick Moore."

The Circuit Court denied the Suppression Motion.

At a hearing on the Funding Motion, Moore's counsel again represented to the Circuit Court that Moore could not afford a DNA expert. With respect to Dr. McClintock, counsel stated:

"Dr. McClintock has, in fact, worked with me on this case to a degree. We were able to come up with some funds, initially, to get the doctor to help me with some preparation. His fee is $225.00 per hour, with a minimum of four hours and a maximum of ten hours. I don't anticipate there being ten hours of work here, so I would imagine somewhere between the four and the ten at a cost of $225.00 per hour."

Regarding the usefulness or necessity of a DNA expert's services in Moore's case, Moore represented as follows:

"[W]e got into all of the DNA testimony and evidence, rather, and it became quite obvious that Mr. Moore would be prejudiced if he were not allowed to have an expert as the State was allowed to have an expert.

* * *

I do feel it's a prejudice to anyone who comes before the Court on a serious matter where experts are necessary. . . . It's just impossible for anyone to properly defend a case unless they have thousands and thousands of dollars just to pay experts."

The District Public Defender for Carroll and Howard Counties appeared at the hearing by the consent of both parties. She informed the court that it was the Public Defender's policy not to provide funds for experts in "private counsel cases," that she had spoken to her superiors, the Public Defender and Deputy Public Defender, about Moore's case, and that these officials had been unwilling to make an exception to the policy. The State...

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