Niemotko v. State

• Decision Date: 11 January 1950
• Docket Number: 1. Misc.
• Parties: NIEMOTKO v. STATE. KELLEY v. STATE.
• Court: Maryland Court of Appeals

71 A.2d 9

194 Md. 247

NIEMOTKO v. STATE.

KELLEY v. STATE.

No. 1. Misc.

Court of Appeals of Maryland.

January 11, 1950

Hayden C. Covington, Brooklyn, N. Y., for Niemotko.

Harry Yaffe, Baltimore, for Kelley.

Before MARBURY, C J., and DELAPLAINE, COLLINS, GRASON, HENDERSON and MARKELL JJ.

MARBURY, Chief Judge.

Separate petitions have been filed in this Court for writs of certiorari to review convictions and judgments of the Circuit Court of Harford County in two cases appealed from trial magistrates' decisions. One case is against Daniel Niemotko, and the other against Neil W. Kelley. The facts are identical in each case. Each petitioner was charged with the same offense. Each was convicted of disorderly conduct before the trial magistrate and fined $50 and costs. Each appealed to the Circuit Court, and was tried before a jury which found him guilty. A fine of $50 and costs was imposed upon each of the petitioners by the Court, and it is these judgments we are asked to review. The petitions are filed under the provisions of Article 5, Section 104 which authorizes such a petition in any case, civil or criminal, in which a final judgment has been rendered by the Circuit Court of any county or by one of the courts of Baltimore City upon appeal from a Justice of the Peace if it shall be made to appear to us that a review is necessary 'to secure uniformity of decision, as where the same statute has been construed differently by the courts of two or more Circuits or that there are other special circumstances rendering it desirable and in the public interest that the case should be reviewed.' This section has been used in State v Depew, 175 Md. 274, 1 A.2d 626, and Darling Shops v Baltimore Center Corp., Md., 60 A.2d 669. In both of these cases the question raised was an erroneous construction of law, and a representation that conflicting decisions had been made throughout the state on the questions involved. The latter allegation is not made in the petitions before us.

The facts stated in the petitioners are that the petitioners are ordained ministers of the Gospel and members of the sect known as Jehovah's witnesses. They were invited by a congregation of that sect in Havre de Grace, Maryland, to give a public talk upon a Bible subject, Niemotko, on June 26, 1949, and Kelley on July 3, 1949. Niemotko had been informed that the City Council of Harve de Grace had refused to allow Jehovah's witnesses to hold the assembly in the Park. When he arrived there, a number of policemen were present, and the Chief of Police advised him that if he attempted to talk he would be arrested. He did start to talk, was allowed to continue for ten or fifteen minutes, and then was arrested. The charge against him was laid under the disorderly conduct statute, Section 131 of Article 27.

Kelley appeared on the following Sunday with knowledge of the arrest of Niemotko, and was likewise informed by the Chief of Police at the Park that if he attempted to talk he would be arrested. Previous to these meetings the local Congregation of Jehovah's witnesses had requested the City Council for permission to use the park for four consecutive Sundays. After a hearing before the Council on June 20, 1949, this application was denied and Jehovah's witnesses thereupon delivered the Council a written letter stating that they could use the park, because, in their opinion, any prohibition against such use was in violation of the decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States.

The questions which the petitioners wish us to review are stated as follows:

(1) Does the making of a speech to a peaceable public assembly in a public park without a permit from the City Council of Havre de Grace and contrary to the order of the Chief of Police constitute disorderly conduct in violation of Section 131, Article 27 of the Code of Public General Laws of Maryland?

(2) Does the undisputed evidence show that there was no violation of Section 131, Article 27 of the Code of Public General Laws of Maryland?

(3) Do the verdict and judgment rendered against the petitioner in the court below abridge the petitioner of his right to freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom of worship and freedom of conscience, contrary to the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution and the Declaration of Rights of Maryland?

(4) Did the trial court commit egregious reversible error in denying petitioner the right to examine the prospective jurors on voir dire as to prejudice and knowledge of the case so as to intelligently exercise his peremptory challenge and to ascertain the existence of grounds warranting challenges for cause?

(5) Did the trial court commit egregious reversible error in excluding evidence and testimony offered by the petitioner and by unduly limiting petitioner's right to cross-examine the witnesses for the prosecution?

(6) Did the trial court commit egregious reversible error in allowing the prosecutor to argue erroneous statements of law to the jury and in denying counsel for the petitioner the right to make and to complete his objections to such arguments?

(7) Did the trial court commit reversible error in overruling the motion for dismissal of the prosecution and for a judgment of acquittal?

(8) Did the trial court commit reversible error in overruling the motion for directed verdict of 'not guilty'?

(9) Did the trial court commit reversible error in overruling the motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict?

(10) Did the trial court commit reversible error in overruling the motion for new trial?

(11) Did the trial court commit egregious and reversible error in rendering a judgment of conviction upon the...