Yerby v. State Of Md.
| Citation | 997 A.2d 144,414 Md. 708 |
| Decision Date | 17 June 2010 |
| Docket Number | 2009.,No. 119,119 |
| Parties | Dameek YEARBY a/k/a Dameek Yerbyv.STATE of Maryland. |
| Court | Court of Appeals of Maryland |
Kellie M. Black, Asst. Public Defender (Paul B. DeWolfe, Public Defender, of Baltimore, MD), on brief, for petitioner.
Diane E. Keller, Asst. Atty. Gen. (Douglas F. Gansler, Atty. Gen. of Maryland, of Baltimore, MD), on brief, for respondent.
Argued before BELL, C.J., HARRELL, BATTAGLIA, GREENE, MURPHY, ADKINS and BARBERA, JJ.
The Petitioner, Dameek Yearby,1 was convicted of robbery, second degree assault, and theft of goods with a value less than $500, in a jury trial in the Circuit Court for Baltimore City. After his motion for new trial was denied, and sentence imposed, he appealed to the Court of Special Appeals. In an unreported opinion, the intermediate appellate court affirmed the judgments in all respects.
Yearby then filed a petition for certiorari in this Court. We granted his petition to consider the following question:
Did the State commit a Brady[2] violation by failing to disclose the facts that the police had developed other suspects with respect to a series of robberies that happened in the same area and during the same time frame as the robbery of which Petitioner was accused, and that at least one of those suspects resembled Petitioner?
Yearby v. State, 411 Md. 355, 983 A.2d 431 (2009). We shall answer “No” to the question, and consequently, shall affirm.
On the night of November 8, 2004, Camille Zongo, a student at Morgan State University in Baltimore, was robbed at gunpoint on campus. After surrendering money to the robber, she began walking toward her dormitory. The gunman ordered her to turn around and walk in the opposite direction. As she turned around toward him, Ms. Zongo could see her assailant because the area was well-lit.3 She later described him as a black male, with a “low haircut” and a caramel complexion, about 5'7? to 5'8? tall, and wearing a white shirt.
In late 2004, there had been a series of other armed robberies in and around the Morgan State campus-at least fourteen had been reported to police. Detective James B. Harrison of the Morgan State University Police Department was assigned the duty to investigate; in the course of his investigation, Yearby, who also was a student at Morgan State, filed a complaint with campus police claiming he had been assaulted. Harrison's suspicions heightened when, shortly afterward, Yearby's roommate, Daryl Gates, was the victim of a more serious assault. There were rumors about campus that Yearby and Gates had been responsible for the robbery spree and that those suspicions had fueled the assaults against Yearby and Gates.
Detective Harrison came to suspect Yearby in the robbery against Ms. Zongo and decided to prepare a photo array that included Yearby's college photo ID. Ms. Zongo selected Yearby's photo from the array, telling Harrison she was “positive” he was the robber. After obtaining an arrest warrant, Detective Harrison, while interviewing Yearby, ostensibly concerning the assault against him, instead, arrested Yearby.
Yearby was charged with robbery with a dangerous weapon; robbery; first degree assault; second degree assault; theft of goods with value less than $500; wearing, carrying, or transporting a handgun; and use of a handgun during the commission of a felony or crime of violence.4
Yearby filed a motion to suppress Ms. Zongo's pretrial identification. Detective Harrison testified at the hearing on that motion, setting forth the background surrounding the case, and the reasons his investigation focused on Yearby as the perpetrator of the armed robbery. Defense counsel questioned him about whether there were other suspects in the case:
The court denied Yearby's motion to suppress, and Ms. Zongo's pretrial identification subsequently was admitted at trial.
Voir dire and jury selection took place the following day, and trial began on May 9, 2007. Ms. Zongo testified that Yearby was her assailant, and later authenticated her extrajudicial identification in front of the jury. Detective Harrison also testified, corroborating Ms. Zongo's testimony.
During re-cross examination of Harrison, the defense pressed him about “the other suspects that [he] developed not matching ... Yearby's description.” Counsel then asked whether Harrison had provided any of his reports concerning the other robberies that had been under investigation at the same time he was investigating this case. Harrison answered “No,” and when defense counsel persisted in this line of questioning, the prosecutor objected. A bench conference then ensued:
(Emphasis added.)
The jury convicted Yearby of robbery, second degree assault, and theft of goods with value less than $500, and acquitted him of the remaining charges.
Yearby filed a timely motion for new trial, asserting that the State had violated Brady by failing to disclose that Detective Harrison “had developed additional suspects at the time he administered the photographic line-up to Ms. Zongo,” that the prosecutor's closing argument had been “loaded with improper remarks,” that the trial court erroneously had denied a defense motion for mistrial and further had refused to give a curative instruction to correct repeated attempts by the prosecutor to introduce hearsay, and that the evidence was insufficient. After a hearing, the court denied Yearby's motion. Yearby was sentenced to six years' imprisonment, suspended to time already served, with three years' probation.
Yearby appealed to the Court of Special Appeals, claiming that the trial court had erred in denying his motion for new trial because the State had violated Brady. He also contended in the intermediate appellate court that the trial judge had committed plain error by failing to take any curative action in response to the prosecutor's “multiple improper comments” during closing argument.
The intermediate appellate court affirmed the judgments of the trial court in an unreported opinion. Yearby filed a petition for certiorari, limited to the Brady issue, which we granted.
The Supreme Court held in Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83, 87, 83 S.Ct. 1194, 1196-97, 10 L.Ed.2d 215, 218 (1963), that “the suppression by the prosecution of evidence favorable to an accused upon request violates due process where the evidence is material either to guilt or to punishment, irrespective of the good faith or bad faith of the prosecution.” The Court subsequently has refined and elaborated on this holding, extending the categories of evidence that must be disclosed Giglio v. United States, 405 U.S. 150, 154, 92 S.Ct. 763, 766, 31 L.Ed.2d 104, 108 (1972) (impeachment evidence), and, when evidence is “highly probative of innocence,” relieving the accused of the burden of making a request. United States v. Agurs, 427 U.S. 97, 110, 96 S.Ct. 2392, 2400, 49 L.Ed.2d 342, 353 (1976); Wilson v. State, 363 Md. 333, 346, 768 A.2d 675, 682 (2001); see also Diallo v. State, 413 Md. 678, 706-08, 994 A.2d 820, 837-38 (2010) ().
There are, however, limits to the prosecutor's automatic duty of disclosure. See United States v. Bagley, 473 U.S. 667, 675 n. 7, 105 S.Ct. 3375, 3380 n. 7, 87 L.Ed.2d 481, 489 n. 7 (1985) () (quoting Giles v. Maryland, 386 U.S. 66, 117, 87 S.Ct. 793, 819, 17 L.Ed.2d...
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