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Lovell v. State11/12/1997
confinement to segregated quarters." Id. at 410, 583 A.2d at 229. Thus, the trial court record in Hunt presented an individualized evaluation under which the State interest in preventing the demonstrated risk of escape outweighed the prejudice in shackling Hunt's legs.
The same kind of individualized evaluation was performed in Bowers v. State, 306 Md. 120, 507 A.2d 1072, cert. denied, 479 U.S. 890, 107 S. Ct. 292, 93 L. Ed. 2d 265 (1986). Bowers was restrained by leg irons or cuffs during his resentencing before a jury for capital murder in the course of a robbery. Id. at 123, 507 A.2d at 1073. This Court upheld the circuit court's exercise of discretion after reviewing Bowers's record. Id. at 138, 507 A.2d at 1081. As a juvenile he had been convicted of assault and battery with a knife. Id. at 125, 507 A.2d at 1074. He had also been convicted of a kidnapping that arose out of the murder. Id. During his confinement on the murder charge he and other prisoners were involved in a disturbance that was quelled only after town police and the Maryland State Police reinforced the jail guards. Id. at 126, 507 A.2d at 1074-75. Bowers also had battered a fellow inmate and a jail employee, resulting in his transfer from a county jail to the state prison system where he was placed in solitary confinement. Id. at 126, 507 A.2d at 1075.
Most recently, in Whittlesey v. State, 340 Md. 30, 665 A.2d 223 (1995), cert. denied, U.S. , 116 S. Ct. 1021, 134 L. Ed. 2d 100 (1996), decided nine months before the jury sentencing of Lovell, a convicted murderer claimed error in having been required to appear in leg shackles at his sentencing proceeding before the jury that imposed death. Id. at 40, 665 A.2d at 227. Because a resentencing was required on other grounds, it was unnecessary for us to determine in that case whether the shackling was erroneous. Id. at 83-84, 665 A.2d at 249. The trial court record indicated that the only support for shackling appeared on an envelope that a representative of the Department of Corrections had given the trial judge on which a block had been checked "'yes, escape risk history.'" Id. at 84, 665 A.2d at 249. "We urged the trial judge [on remand] to follow the directives set out in Hunt and Bowers before employing any extraordinary security measure and to articulate the reasons underlying any such decision." Id. at 86, 665 A.2d at 250.
The decisions of other American courts that address the issue of shackling at a capital sentencing are substantially in accord with the Maryland analysis. The Supreme Court of Florida addressed the problem in Bello v. State, 547 So. 2d 914 (Fla. 1989), on facts remarkably similar to those in the case before us. In order to avoid apprehension in a drug raid, Bello had shot and killed a police officer and attempted to murder another police officer during a gun battle. Id. at 915. The Florida court held that the finding of guilty of capital murder "does not mean that no inquiry into the reasons behind the shackling is required in the penalty phase." Id. at 918. There was no evidence in the record in Bello to support the need for shackling because the trial judge had made no inquiry into its necessity. Id. Accordingly, the Supreme Court of Florida vacated the sentence and directed a new sentencing. Id. at 919.
A panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit divided on the application of the principles concerning shackling at a capital sentencing in Elledge v. Dugger, 823 F.2d 1439 (11th Cir.) (per curiam), modified on other grounds per curiam, 833 F.2d 250 (11th Cir. 1987), cert. denied, 485 U.S. 1014, 108 S. Ct. 1487, 99 L. Ed. 2d 715 (1988), a federal habeas corpus case. A Florida state trial judge had author
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