Starliper v. State
| Decision Date | 22 June 1915 |
| Docket Number | 6. |
| Citation | 94 A. 908,126 Md. 295 |
| Parties | STARLIPER v. STATE. |
| Court | Maryland Court of Appeals |
Appeal from Circuit Court, Washington County; M. L. Keedy, Judge.
Cecil Starliper was convicted of carrying a concealed weapon, and he appeals. Appeal dismissed.
Albert J. Long, of Hagerstown (Jesse O. Snyder, of Hagerstown, on the brief), for appellant. Edgar Allan Poe, Atty. Gen., and Scott M. Wolfinger, State's Atty., of Hagerstown, for the State.
The appellant in this case was arrested upon a warrant, dated the 9th of September, 1914, issued by John Ankeney, a justice of the peace of the state of Maryland in and for Washington county, upon the oath of Otto W. King, who charges that the traverser, "did unlawfully, on August 14, 1914, carry a deadly weapon commonly called a revolver concealed upon or about his person, contrary to law." On the 14th of September, 1914, a jury trial was prayed on the part of the state to the November term of the circuit court for Washington county, and on the following day the warrant and papers were transmitted by the justice of the peace to the clerk of the circuit court, and filed in his office. The appellant was tried and convicted before a jury, at a regular term of the circuit court for Washington county on December 1, 1914, and was sentenced by the court on the 4th day of December, 1914, to the Maryland House of Correction for the period of two years. From this judgment he has taken this appeal.
At the trial of the case in the court below the traverser reserved ten bills of exceptions. Six of these relate to the rulings of the court upon the admissibility of evidence. The seventh eighth, ninth, and tenth exceptions were to the action of the court in overruling motions to set aside the verdict and for a suspension of sentence pending an application for a pardon.
The first question to be considered on an appeal to this court in cases of this kind, is one of jurisdiction, and that is whether the circuit court for Washington county had power and jurisdiction to hear and determine the case. The proceedings in the case were originated before the justice of the peace under section 39 of article 27, subtit. "Concealed Weapons," Bagby's Code, vol. 3, p. 322. By chapter 146 of the Acts of 1914 two additional sections to be known as sections 30A and 30B were added to the section of the Code then in force in the state.
By section 30B of this act jurisdiction original and concurrent with the circuit courts having criminal jurisdiction was given to the justices of the peace of the state, and they were given power to try and determine all such cases to the same extent as the circuit courts of the state having criminal jurisdiction could do in such cases. By the latter part of this section it is provided as follows:
"That if any person, when brought before any such justice having jurisdiction of the case, shall, before the trial, for the alleged offense, pray a jury trial or if the state's attorney for the county or city where the offense occurs shall, before the trial of such alleged offense, pray a jury trial on behalf of the state, it shall be the duty of such justice to commit such alleged offender for trial, or to hold him to bail to appear for trial in the court having *** jurisdiction in the case, at its then or next session."
The justice of the peace is further required to return the papers, with the names, etc., of the witnesses, forthwith to the clerk of the circuit court where the trial is to be had and to inform the accused when brought before him for trial of his right to demand a jury trial. It will be seen that, while the statute gives the right of appeal from the justice of the peace in the mode and manner provided therein to the circuit...
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