Jackson v. State

Per Curiam. This appeal is from the denial by the Criminal Court of Baltimore of a petition for a writ of error coram nobis. The defendant-appellant, Jackson, was convicted in that court on each of four counts of an indictment, and was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment. The first two counts were based upon forgery (forgery of a bill of exchange (a check) for $76.16) and uttering a forged bill of exchange (the same check).

The third and fourth counts, also based upon the same check, charged obtaining money by false pretenses. The first two counts were evidently intended to charge violations of Section 51 of Article 27 of the 1951 Edition of the Code (Section 44 of that Article in the 1957 Edition). The third count was apparently founded upon Section 165 of Article 27 of the 1951 Code (Section 140 of Article 27 of the 1957 Code). Each of these first three counts contained the usual phrase “contrary to the form of the Act of Assembly in such case made and provided,” but none of them referred specifically to any statute.

The fourth count referred specifically to Section 167 of Article 27 of the 1951 Code (Section 142 of that Article in the 1957 Edition). Section 167 was amended by Chapter 11 of the Acts of 1955, so as to limit the term of imprisonment for offenses thereunder in cases involving less than $100 to not more than eighteen months. The maximum ²⁷ imprisonment permitted under each of the first three counts exceeded three years. Jackson’s conviction came before this Court on a direct appeal in Jackson v. State, 214 Md. 454 , 135 A. 2d 638 , certiorari denied 356 U. S. 940 .

In that case Jackson, after having accepted, later rejected the assistance of counsel and elected to file his own brief. (He has also filed his own brief and reply brief in this case, though court-appointed counsel (not his original trial counsel) appeared on his behalf at the argument in this Court.) In the former case, Jackson’s conviction was affirmed. The