Randall v. Warden of Md. Penitentiary, 9

• Decision Date: 05 January 1956
• Docket Number: No. 9,9
• Citation: 208 Md. 667,119 A.2d 712
• Parties: Eric Preston RANDALL v. WARDEN OF the MARYLAND PENITENTIARY.
• Court: Maryland Court of Appeals

Page 667

208 Md. 667

119 A.2d 712

Eric Preston RANDALL v. WARDEN OF the MARYLAND PENITENTIARY.

No. 9.

Court of Appeals of Maryland.

Jan. 5, 1956.

Before BRUNE, C. J., and DELAPLAINE, COLLINS and HENDERSON, JJ.

BRUNE, Chief Judge.

Eric Preston Randall filed an application for leave to appeal from an order remanding him to the custody of the Warden of the Maryland Penitentiary. This order was passed by Judge Niles, sitting in the Baltimore City Court, after a hearing on a writ of habeas corpus which had been issued by Judge Nice.

The applicant is serving a sentence of ten years' imprisonment imposed on January 17, 1953 by the late Chief Judge W. Conwell Smith in the Criminal Court of Baltimore, following Randall's trial and conviction as an accessory after the fact in a murder case. His trial took place on October 19 and 20, 1953 and his conviction occurred on the latter of those dates. The principal ground upon which he based his claim that he was illegally imprisoned at his hearing before Judge Niles was that he was tried before the alleged principal had been tried and convicted.

Randall was indicted in Baltimore County, but at his instance his case was removed for trial to Baltimore City. At the hearing before Judge Niles, the State's Attorney for Baltimore County who prosecuted the case against Randall and also the case against the principal, one Elkins, stated that Randall and his counsel not only consented, but expressly asked, that he be tried on October 19. The principal was then confined in the Spring Grove State Hospital for the Insane and was not mentally competent to be tried at that time. Elkins was tried in Baltimore County before Judges Hammond and Murray, without a jury, and was convicted of murder in the first degree on December 14, 1953, and was sentenced to imprisonment for life. Randall was not sentenced until after Elkins' conviction. In Hochheimer on Crimes and Criminal Procedure, 2d Ed. (1904), Section 27, it is stated that, 'At common law, an accessory cannot without his own express consent be put upon his separate trial until after conviction of the principal, nor in any case sentenced until after sentence of the principal.' To the same general effect, see 22 C.J.S., Criminal Law, § 104, p. 177, which requires only the consent of the accessory to trial and the conviction, rather than sentence, of the principal. The latter statement of the rule seems preferable. The applicant's trial, conviction and sentence were proper within either statement of the rule, even if the question were one which was available on habeas corpus. If the contention had any merit, it would appear to be open to review on appeal, and no special circumstances are present to take it out of the general rule that matters reviewable on appeal are not available on habeas corpus. See Superintendent of Maryland State Reformatory for Males v. Calman, 203 Md. 414, 101 A.2d 207, and Barker v. Warden of Maryland House of Correction, Md., 119 A.2d 710, and cases therein cited.

Several other grounds are assigned by the applicant in support of his claim that he is illegally imprisoned. To a large extent they seem to be derived from forms and couched in language which the applicant may not fully comprehend. In general, he appears to claim: (1) that a statement (presumably a confession, though this is far from clear) was obtained from him by police while he was held in custody under a demand for excessive bail and before he had an opportunity to consult with his family or an attorney, that he was allowed little food and little rest during this time and that his statement was involuntary; (2) that he was denied compulsory process for a witness; (3) that there was no specific statute dealing with his alleged offense and fixing maximum and minimum penalties; (4) that there was unfavorable publicity involving charges...