Alston v. State

Mason, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. This is an appeal from a robbery conviction and subsequent ten-year sentence entered against the appellant, ⁷³ John Alston, in the Criminal Court of Baltimore, Judge Harry Cole presiding in a jury trial. Two questions are raised on appeal: (1) did the trial court err in requiring the appellant to submit, at the time of trial, to a fingerprint analysis, and (2) did the trial court err in refusing to grant the appellant’s motion for a judgment of acquittal. Mrs. Mary Buckley, the victim, was sitting in the living room of her Baltimore City home when two boys entered her home and tied her to a chair.

She knew one of the boys as Tyrone Bonner, but she did not know the other individual. The boys took several items including a stereo, an electric saw, her wallet and cigarette lighter. The victim testified that one of the boys threw her bank book across the floor. She indicated the second boy who robbed her (the one who she did not know) looked like the appellant and he was the one to handle the bank book.

She also testified that the appellant had never been in her home before. Another witness for the State identified the appellant as one of the boys fleeing from the victim’s house. Tyrone Bonner testified that the appellant entered the victim’s home at the time of the robbery, but he remained in the yard. A fingerprint expert indicated that the fingerprint on the plastic cover of the bank book matched the left thumb print of a known print of the appellant.

At this point a dispute arose as to whether the fingerprints on the