 |
 |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|
|
|
|
Perry v. State12/10/1999
a common sense perspective."); Lewis, 348 Md. at 662, 705 A.2d at 1135 ("We shall not interpret a statute to produce unusual or extraordinary results, absent the clear legislative intent to enact such a provision."); Blandon v. State, 304 Md. 316, 319, 498 A.2d 1195, 1196 (1985) (" ules of statutory construction require us to avoid construing a statute in a way which would lead to absurd results."); Comptroller v. Fairchild Indus., Inc., 303 Md. 280, 284, 493 A.2d 341, 343 (1985) ("A statute should not be construed by forced or subtle interpretations . . . ."). Mustafa's holding is precisely what these cases and others seek to prevent - an unusual interpretation of a statute lacking, in my view, substantial logical force, which, in the case now before this Court, results in a great inJustice.
The application of Mustafa's holding to the case sub judice leads to this result: a telephone conversation received in California by a California resident, and legally recorded there, from a resident of the State of Michigan who is only temporarily in the State of Maryland under a contract with the California resident to murder the California resident's disabled son and estranged wife (both of whom are Maryland residents), may not be admitted as evidence in Maryland. As a result, a Michigan murderer hired by a California co-conspirator is to have his conviction for murdering three Maryland residents reversed.
In all due respect, I am unable to describe the result of Mustafa's application in this case as anything other than absurd - or an equivalent description. If the intention of the Legislature in passing this legislation was to protect the privacy of Maryland residents, I fail completely to perceive how the victims' privacy has been, or is being, protected. They are the only Maryland residents involved. Regrettably, they have been murdered. The ultimate invasion of privacy has already been visited on them by the murderer whose conviction is being reversed. In my view, it is difficult to believe that the General Assembly, in its wildest dreams, ever intended such a result. The result appears to be extreme, if not bizarre.
Moreover, the language of the Maryland Wiretap Act is clear and unambiguous, and needs no further construction. There is no indication that the interception of the twenty-two second conversation was illegal under California law and it apparently is legal under federal law. See 18 U.S.C. § 2511 (1994 & Supp. IV 1998), Cal. Penal Code §§ 632, 633.5 (West 1999). Therefore, when Horn recorded the conversation at issue here it was not unlawful where made and was not a violation of Maryland Law. He had not violated any Maryland statute. He could not have been independently prosecuted in Maryland for a violation of the Maryland statute, unless this Court is going to hold that it has the power to declare such actions done in other states, even in other countries, to constitute Maryland criminal offenses. Moreover, the disclosure of the recording in California, after it had been seized by a California officer pursuant to a valid California warrant, did not violate any Maryland law, or any California law, as far as the record establishes. There has been absolutely no violation of the Maryland Act and, accordingly, I fail to perceive why the evidence must be excluded pursuant to an exclusionary provision that excludes evidence only if obtained in violation of the statute. Additionally, we should look to the purpose of our wiretapping exclusionary rule. As we have previously stated, " he purpose of these exclusionary rules is `to deter law enforcement officers from violating privacy rights by ensuring that the courts do not become partners in illegal police conduct.'" Mustafa, 323 Md.
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.
|
|