State v. Adams, 52

• Decision Date: 19 July 1982
• Docket Number: No. 52,52
• Parties: STATE of Maryland v. William L. ADAMS.
• Court: Maryland Court of Appeals

Page 665

293 Md. 665

447 A.2d 833

STATE of Maryland v. William L. ADAMS.

No. 52.

Court of Appeals of Maryland.

July 19, 1982.

Michael A. Anselmi, Asst. Atty. Gen., Baltimore (Stephen H. Sachs, Atty. Gen., Baltimore, on the brief), for appellant.

George L. Russell, Jr., Baltimore, for appellee.

Argued before MURPHY, C. J., and SMITH, DIGGES ^*, ELDRIDGE, COLE, DAVIDSON and RODOWSKY, JJ.

MURPHY, Chief Judge.

This case involves a claim of prosecutorial vindictiveness allegedly resulting from the filing of additional criminal charges against the defendant after the original charging document had been dismissed on the defendant's motion.

I

The pertinent facts are these. On September 24, 1979, William L. Adams was charged in the District Court of Maryland with having conspired with William Simpson at a designated place and during a designated time period "to violate the gambling laws, to wit Lottery of the State of Md. ... in violation of the Common Law of Md." After Adams requested a trial by jury in the Criminal Court of Baltimore, he moved to dismiss the charging document on the ground that it had not been signed by a judicial officer as required by Maryland District Rule 711 b 2. The motion was granted on January 16, 1980. The following day, a new charging document was filed against Adams in the District Court of Maryland. It contained three counts, each of which alleged that Adams, at the place and during the time period designated in the original charging document, conspired with William Simpson "to violate the gambling (lottery) laws of the State of Maryland." Each count specified that the conspiracy violated a section of Art. 27 of the Maryland Code (1957, 1976 Repl.Vol.), i.e., respectively, §§ 360, 361 and 362, as well as the common law of the State. Once again, Adams prayed a jury trial in the Criminal Court of Baltimore where he moved to dismiss the charges on the ground that the prosecutor had acted vindictively in filing three separate conspiracy counts against him after he had successfully moved to dismiss the earlier single count charging document. Adams asserted that the new charging document subjected him to a potential punishment three times as great as that under the original charging document--from a one-year term of imprisonment and a $1,000 fine to a three-year term and a $3,000 fine. ¹ Adams claimed that he had exercised a constitutional or procedural right in having the first charging document dismissed and that the institution of the new charging document, increasing the charges against him, gave rise to the appearance of vindictiveness, together with a realistic apprehension of such vindictiveness in contravention of the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Adams relied primarily on United States v. Goodwin, 637 F.2d 250 (4th Cir. 1981).

At the hearing on the motion to dismiss, Adams conceded that there was no evidence of actual vindictiveness on the part of the prosecutor. Nevertheless, he argued that under Goodwin, a presumption of vindictiveness exists in every case where new criminal charges are filed following the successful exercise by a defendant of a constitutional or other right in having earlier charges dismissed. Adams contended that even if the prosecutor was allowed to rebut the presumption, no adequate rebuttal evidence existed. The State responded that "the mere [chronological] fact that additional charges are filed, at some [later] period in time" does not automatically create prosecutorial vindictiveness. It maintained that the new charges were also obtained simultaneously against thirty-seven other codefendants of Adams, who were similarly recharged. The new charges were brought, the State argued, in response to another defendant's motion to dismiss the original charging document for "not charging a cognizable crime." The State explained that it was acting with an "excess of caution" in order to "avoid duplicity, ... to apprise the defendant[s] of the nature [of the crime charged] ... and to protect the defendant[s] against double jeopardy." In addition, the State stipulated that if Adams were convicted on the charges, they would be merged, thereby negating any possibility of increased punishment. The State suggested that its explanation rebutted the presumption of a "realistic apprehension of prosecutorial vindictiveness," if indeed one existed.

The trial judge (Thomas, J.) denied Adams' motion to dismiss. He ruled that "there is [no] evidence of any realistic apprehension that the prosecutor ... retaliated because the defendant ... exercised his right to question the legality of the original charging document." The court also stated that even if Adams' situation was one where "the mere appearance of vindictiveness gives rise to a ... presumption of vindictive motive ... it would be a rebuttable [one].... [T]he burden would be shifted to the prosecutor to show that his decision was justified by independent reasons or intervening circumstances which dispel the appearance of vindictiveness." Applying this test, the court found that the prosecutor's actions were in the public interest "and not calculated to deter or threaten the defendant for exercising his constitutional rights." Therefore, the court held that even if a presumption did arise, it was refuted by the State's explanation.

The Court of Special Appeals reversed the lower court's judgment, basing its decision on the Fourth Circuit's holding in Goodwin, supra. In that case a United States park policeman had stopped defendant Goodwin for speeding on the Baltimore-Washington Parkway. As the officer was questioning Goodwin, he suddenly placed the car in gear and sped away, knocking the officer to the ground. A high speed police chase thereafter ensued, but Goodwin successfully eluded capture. The next day the officer filed a complaint in the United States District Court, charging Goodwin with misdemeanor assault and several petty offenses. Subsequently, Goodwin was apprehended and a trial date was set. Goodwin, however, fled the jurisdiction before the trial. Three years later, he was apprehended in another jurisdiction and returned to Maryland for trial. The case was initially assigned to a federal prosecutor whose authority was limited to trying misdemeanor charges only. Plea negotiations failed and Goodwin requested a jury trial in the district court. Responsibility for the case was then transferred to a more experienced prosecutor who, having decided that Goodwin's conduct merited more severe charges, obtained a four-count indictment charging Goodwin with one felony count of forcibly assaulting a federal officer and three related counts. Goodwin was convicted on the felony count and on one misdemeanor count. Thereafter, he moved to set aside the verdict on the ground of prosecutorial vindictiveness. Emphasizing the Supreme Court's prohibition of judicial or prosecutorial vindictiveness as outlined in North Carolina v. Pearce, 395 U.S. 711, 89 S.Ct. 2072, 23 L.Ed.2d 656 (1969), and Blackledge v. Perry, 417 U.S. 21, 94 S.Ct. 2098, 40 L.Ed.2d 628 (1974), respectively, Goodwin claimed that filing of the felony indictment on the heels of his request for a jury trial created an impermissible appearance of retaliation. The District Court denied the motion, finding that the prosecutor had dispelled any appearance of vindictiveness.

The Fourth Circuit, relying on Pearce and Blackledge supra, reversed, holding that the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment prohibits a prosecutor from bringing increased charges against a defendant after he has exercised his right to a jury trial, unless the Government could show by objective evidence that the escalated charges could not have been brought before the defendant invoked his right. 637 F.2d at 253. Finding that the circumstances of Goodwin's felony indictment gave rise to a genuine risk of retaliation, the court adopted a virtually unrebuttable legal presumption to "spare courts the unseemly task of probing the actual motives of the prosecutor where objective circumstances suggest a realistic possibility of vindictiveness." Id. at 255.

The Court of Special Appeals, applying the rationale of Goodwin, held that the "objective circumstances" of the case before it did indeed "suggest a realistic possibility of vindictiveness." Thus, it refused to adopt the balancing test urged by the State, whereby the court would have had to weigh the State's explanation for its behavior against the defendant's claims of retaliation. 48 Md.App. 447, 452, 428 A.2d 476 (1981). Instead, since the prosecution could not show that the increased charges could not have been brought before Adams' motion to dismiss was filed, the court found that the Goodwin "presumption of vindictiveness" had not been rebutted. It reversed the judgment of the lower court, ordering in effect that the charging document filed against Adams be dismissed. We granted certiorari to resolve the important constitutional issues raised in the case.

II

The Fourth Circuit's decision in Goodwin, supra, was recently reversed by the Supreme Court. United States v. Goodwin, --- U.S. ----, 102 S.Ct. 2485, 72 L.Ed.2d ---- (1982). In rejecting the presumption of vindictiveness embraced by the Fourth Circuit, the Court completed the trilogy started with Pearce and Blackledge, supra. In Pearce, the Court held that vindictiveness must play no part in a judicially imposed sentence received by a defendant who has successfully attacked his first conviction. Furthermore, appealing defendants must also "be free[ ] of apprehension of such a retaliatory motivation on the part of the sentencing judge." 395 U.S. at 725, 89 S.Ct. at 2080. Therefore, the Court also ruled that following an appeal, a defendant may not be sentenced more severely unless based upon "objective information concerning identifiable conduct on the part of the defendant occurring after the time of the original sentencing proceeding." Id....