Eaton v. Director

³⁷ Marbury, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. The applicant, George Smith Eaton, pleaded guilty to six counts of false pretenses and larceny on December 15, 1960, and was sentenced to eight years in the Maryland Penitentiary. Thereafter, at the suggestion of the Commissioner of Correction, he was sent to Patuxent Institution on March 23, 1964, for evaluation as a defective delinquent. At a non-jury trial concluded on January 18, 1965, before Chief Judge Manley in the Criminal Court of Baltimore, he was found to be a defective delinquent and was committed to Patuxent.

In this application for leave to appeal, the applicant’s counsel presented ten contentions. The first six of these center on the sending of a letter to Judge Manley by the Commissioner of Correction, Vernon R. Pepersack, following the first day of the hearing. This letter, requested by the assistant State’s Attorney, is claimed to be inflammatory, prejudicial and to contain biased statements, including hearsay remarks about a former penitentiary employee reflecting on applicant’s character; and derogatory remarks regarding Mr. Brett, who testified in applicant’s behalf. Thus, applicant contends that the trial court erred in not granting a mistrial and his rights under the Sixth Amendment of the United States Constitution were violated.

The record indicates that the first hearing before Judge Manley commenced on December 18, 1964. The State requested and was granted a recess in order to obtain additional evidence. The letter in question to Judge Manley from Mr. Pepersack was dated December 21, 1964. At the resumption of the case on January 8, 1965, the applicant objected to this letter because it contained harmful statements.

Although the judge found that the statements therein contained were not biased and indicated that he would not be influenced by them, he decided that the only way to correct any possible unfairness to Eaton caused by the letter was to have the State call Mr. Pepersack as a witness to give the defense an opportunity to cross-examine him. The witness was called by the State and did testify on January 18, 1965, repeating the statements contained in the letter which were not hearsay. On objection by applicant’s counsel he was not allowed to testify to those portions of the letter which were ³⁸ hearsay with respect to incidents