 |
 |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|
|
|
|
Perry v. State12/10/1999
wiretapping laws, but not with Illinois law, was admissible in Illinois state court); Commonwealth v. Trignani, 334 Pa. Super. 526, 536, 483 A.2d 862, 866-67 (1984) (holding that wiretap interception in Pennsylvania by federal agents in compliance with federal wiretapping laws, but not with Pennsylvania law, was admissible in Pennsylvania state court); cf. D'Antorio v. State, 837 P.2d 727, 731 (Alaska Ct. App. 1992) (regarding introduction of evidence in an Alaskan court: "federal law and the law of Ohio apply to the search incident to arrest and the original inventory search . . . conducted in Ohio since the police officers who conducted these searches were Ohio police officers and were simply following Ohio law."); McClellan v. State, 359 So. 2d 869, 873 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App.) (" vidence procured in a sister state pursuant to a search valid under of the laws of that state is admissible in the trial of a criminal case in Florida notwithstanding that the warrant validly issued and executed in the sister state would not have been or was not valid under the laws of Florida; provided the warrant and its execution in the sister state does not offend U.S. Constitutional standards."), cert. denied, 364 So. 2d 892 (Fla. 1978); State v. Lucas, 372 N.W.2d 731, 737 (Minn. 1985) (noting that wiretap interception legally made in Wisconsin, is admissible in a Minnesota court). See generally Carol M. Bast, What's Bugging You? Inconsistencies and Irrationalities of the Law of Eavesdropping, 47 DePaul L. Rev. 837 (1998).
Given the strong trend of other jurisdictions to apply the wiretap statute of the state where the wiretapping took place, this Court should overturn Mustafa and adopt that sounder application of the law. Cf. United States v. Hill, 48 F.3d 228, 232 (7th Cir. 1995) ("When a number of other circuits reject a position that we have taken, and no other circuit accepts it, the interest in avoiding unnecessary . . . conflicts comes into play . . . ."); Critical Mass Energy Project v. Nuclear Regulatory Comm'n, 975 F.2d 871, 876 (D.C. Cir. 1992) (" circuit court may re-examine its own established interpretation of a statute if it finds that other circuits have persuasively argued a contrary construction."), cert. denied, 507 U.S. 984, 113 S. Ct. 1579, 123 L. Ed. 147 (1993).
This interpretation of the law is in keeping with the tenets of the exclusionary rule and what I believe must have been the intention of the General Assembly. This Court's interpretation of the law in Mustafa, 323 Md. 65, 591 A.2d 481, is, I respectfully suggest, critically flawed. By looking to our sister states, I have found what I perceive to be more logical, rational, and practical solutions and propose that we follow their lead with a similar interpretation of Maryland's wiretap statute. When an interception has been legally obtained in a situs state, it should then be admissible in Maryland regardless of whether the wiretap would have been illegal had the recording been made in Maryland. If we were to do so, we would avoid absurd results.
In statutory construction, absurd results are to be avoided. This Court stated in D & Y, Inc. v. Winston, 320 Md. 534, 538, 578 A.2d 1177, 1179 (1990), that "construction of a statute which is unreasonable, illogical, unjust, or inconsistent with common sense should be avoided." See also, e.g., Degren v. State, 352 Md. 400, 418, 722 A.2d 887, 895 (1999) (" e should construe the statute in a manner that results in an interpretation `reasonable and consonant with logic and common sense.'" (quoting Lewis v. State, 348 Md. 648, 654, 705 A.2d 1128, 1131 (1998))); Edgewater Liquors, Inc. v. Liston, 349 Md. 803, 808, 709 A.2d 1301, 1303 (1998) (" e approach statutory construction from
Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 Maryland Personal Injury Attorneys
Personal Injury Lawyers
|
| |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|
By using the system, you agree to TERMS OF SERVICE
|