How many will actually start? (All but one are scheduled for the same judge-- duh!)
How many will end in a conviction?
Let's follow together, shall we?
Baltimore, MD – October 28, 2008 – The following six murder trials are scheduled to begin in Baltimore Circuit Court tomorrow.
The murder trial of Brandon Green and Jerome Whitaker is scheduled to begin at 2:00PM tomorrow before Judge John C. Themelis, 225 Courthouse East.
Court documents allege that on March 13, 2007 Christopher Clark, 18, was caught in a crossfire and sustained a gunshot wound to the torso in the 3100 block of Cliftmont Avenue. Allegedly, Clark was shot in the crossfire when an unknown male appeared from an alley and fired a handgun at Antonio Santifer, who was standing on the sidewalk in front of his residence. Santifer was struck and taken to Johns Hopkins Hospital. The two other suspects, later identified as Jerome Whitaker and Brandon Green, were also wounded and treated at Johns Hopkins Hospital. Clark died from his injuries at Johns Hopkins Hospital the same day.
The murder trial of Bryant Williams is scheduled to begin 9:30AM tomorrow before Judge John A. Howard, 438 Mitchell Courthouse.
Court documents allege that on May 2, 2007 in the 2200 block of Barclay Street Derius Harmon, 19, was found fatally shot. Witnesses later identified Williams as the alleged shooter.
The murder trial of Dajuan Marshall is scheduled to begin 11:00AM tomorrow before Judge John C. Themelis, 225 Courthouse East.
Court documents allege on June 8, 2008, Dajuan Marshall and an unknown male approached Kenneth Jones in the area of Custom House and Water Street. Marshall and the unknown male allegedly forced Jones at gunpoint into the trunk of a waiting four-door sedan. The body of Mr. Jones was found on June 9 at 12:15AM in the 4500 block of Bonner Road.
The murder trial of Danny Battle is scheduled to begin 2:00PM tomorrow before Judge John C. Themelis, 225 Courthouse East.
Court documents allege Danny Battle was responsible for a shooting incident on January 25, 2008 in the 900 block of Pennsylvania Avenue. Irvin Lawson was found suffering from gunshot wounds in the unit block. He died later at University of Maryland Shock Trauma.
The murder trial of Michael Wallace is scheduled to begin 2:00PM tomorrow before Judge John A. Howard, 438 Mitchell Courthouse.
Court documents allege June 12, 2007 in the 2400 block of Ellamont Ave. the victim, Sterling A. Carr, Jr., 28, was found on the sidewalk suffering from a gunshot wound to the upper torso. Carr died the same day at Shock Trauma. Witnesses later identified Wallace as the alleged shooter.
The murder trial of Darnell Jeter is scheduled to begin 11:00AM tomorrow before Judge John A. Howard, 438 Mitchell Courthouse.
Court documents allege Darnell Jeter was responsible for the death of Theresa Parker on March 25, 2007 in the 1200 block of Treeleaf Court. Parker was found dead in the second floor bedroom of a vacant dwelling at that address.
15 comments:
I'm glad that someone is going to trial for Christopher Clark's murder. He was a citizen, hot a hoodlum, and his death deserves to be avenged.
Interesting - I had jury duty last week (Thu - Fri) and they called a HUGE jury pool in the morning (I missed that one). The following afternoon, they were STILL picking jurors - 125 people had been excused at that point. I wonder if it was for one of these. (Our trial, by the way, was an assault case in which the State failed to prove anything & we returned not guilty on all counts).
Just a little insight about how the system works. All felony cases are scheduled for 2 courtrooms called Reception Court. The Reception Court is like a clearinghouse. If a guy wants to plead guilty he will probably get his best deal here. If he wants a trial the judge will see what other judge is available to hear the case, if any. If one is located the case is sent there for trial.
"Our trial, by the way, was an assault case in which the State failed to prove anything & we returned not guilty on all counts"
You should've checked out the suspect's history in MD judiciary case search. If he had a long record you should've convicted him anyways.
PP--A call for reverse jury nullification! Bad PP! We, the citizens, can't have it both ways. We can't complain if a jury finds guilty folks innocent, if we then go around and find someone guilty because of his record.
Of course, I follow your logic, but the jurors are sworn to hear the evidence regarding their case only. I don't believe that they're legitimately allowed to go looking up a defendant's record before deciding on the verdict. (Though it appears traffic court judges do it all the time.) Just because the thug did some other bad stuff before, doesn't necessarily mean he did this bad stuff. I certainly sympathize with you on this emotionally--the criminals run the asylum here, but doing what you would suggest might make matters worse.
My guess is that the state went with the best evidence they had, and that they only took this to trial because he was a real bad actor; they may have lost some evidence (witnesses or other) along the way that Sean and his fellow jurors did not get to hear, but felt public safety demanded that they take a shot.
Thanks Buz, I was going to respond in a similar fashion. That's just not how juries work.
Anyway, the details of this case were as follows: victim is drunk (2 times the legal limit at the hospital). He pushes defendant and throws. Defendant leaves victim's house and begins walking down the street, away from the house. Victim comes out of his house and goes after the defendant. Defendant is backing away at this point. Victim attacks defendant, throwing the first punch. Victim and defendant are exchanging blows. (Victim, by the way, is larger and taller than defendant.) At some point, victim looks down and sees blood on himself and at that point returns to his house. Defendant leaves with someone else. Police show up, victim is uncooperative. Victim goes to hospital and is found to have 4-5 5mm cuts and slash marks on his body. Victim never saw a knife or any other weapon (a knife was later recovered under victim's couch, but no fingerprints, blood, etc are mentioned). The next day, victim tells police defendant cut him - or something, he wasn't clear. No witnesses saw defendant with any kind of weapon. Defendant was charged with 1st & 2nd degree assault & openly carrying a weapon.
We couldn't convict the guy for a few reasons:
1. Openly carrying a weapon? No one saw a weapon, no weapon was ever recovered.
2. 1st degree assault? The defendant was defending himself, so any assault didn't rise to 1st degree in our minds. They were fighting, and victim started the fight. He pushed the defendant inside the house and attacked him outside the house.
3. 2nd degree assault? If anything, the victim should have been charged with this!
We felt the prosecutor did the best she could with a complete lack of evidence or witnesses. Her entire case was basically that the victim and defendant were fighting (she admitted that victim started the fight) and that victim got cut somehow. That was it!
The bigger point, of course, is that we only used the evidence presented to us in the courtroom to determine guilt or innocence in this case. For all we knew, the victim had a lengthy criminal history and the defendant volunteers at an orphanage - it doesn't matter.
"Thanks Buz, I was going to respond in a similar fashion. That's just not how juries work."
"I certainly sympathize with you on this emotionally--the criminals run the asylum here, but doing what you would suggest might make matters worse."
In a jurisdiction with a functioning legal system I would agree with both of you, but IMO the rule of law has broken down so badly in Baltimore that it's acceptable for citizens to take matters into their own hands in extreme circumstances. If this were Baltimore County my feelings would be different, but the judiciary in the city is so ineffective that legal vigilantism is sometimes required.
I had jury duty on Monday, and was called in for the panel selection for the trial of Maurice Crosby, who is accused of murdering Michael Simms, the Marine who tried to break up a fight involving Simms in upper Fell's Point last summer. I got dismissed during the first round of cuts, but it looks like the trial actually started today. I didn't expect there to be much hope of me making it on to the jury, but I would have been happy to have served on it. First time I've had jury duty in the city in over 12 years as a resident.
Well, traveler, you should now expect to get a summons every year!
Sean is correct. It took them a few years to snag me, but since then I've been getting a summons every 13 months or so.
Thanks for the clarification, Jack. So Themelis is our 'recpetionist' I guess?
I was so bummed that I got jury duty for the first time since becoming eligible in 1999, and it was on my due date, so I had to decline. I do so hope they write me again; hanging out at the courthouse reading books is exactly my idea of a good time.
I did get to watch The Lost Holiday and Happy Feet, and while time still seemed to stand still, I suppose it could have been worse.
I always bring my own movies to watch on a laptop. The first time I had jury duty I watched about five episodes of Homicide. As you can imagine that left me in a mood to convict someone.
"I do so hope they write me again; hanging out at the courthouse reading books is exactly my idea of a good time."
Don't worry, summoning people for jury duty is one of the few things that this city can do with great reliability. That and issue bogus parking tickets.
ppatin,
You're in for a _MAJOR_ disappointment if you ever get picked for jury duty.
As for using "MD court search" as a juror, I've done it. No one can stop you. If I thought it might help, I would bring it up in deliberation as well. It might help to balance out other jurors who blather non-stop about how the police are not to be trusted.
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