Trimble v. State

BISHOP, Judge. Appellant James Russell Trimble appeals the consecutive life sentence imposed by Judge James Smith in the Circuit Court for Baltimore County, pursuant to a remand for re-sentencing ordered by the Court of Appeals after it vacated Trimble’s original death sentence. 321 Md. 248 , 582 A.2d 794 . Issue Presented Whether the circuit court, in re-sentencing Trimble, erred in imposing a consecutive life sentence rather than a life sentence concurrent with the previously imposed sentences? Statement of Facts Trimble was convicted in the Circuit Court for Baltimore County (Hormes, J.), of first degree murder, first degree rape, two counts of first degree sexual offense, two counts of kidnapping, assault, and various other offenses.

Trimble was sentenced to death on the murder count, and to two concurrent and one consecutive life terms plus seventy years on the remaining counts. On appeal the death sentence was vacated and the trial court imposed a life sentence consecutive to all previous sentences in the case. Discussion Trimble contends that a death sentence is a concurrent sentence and that replacing it with a consecutive life sentence on remand is an illegal increase in the sentence. We disagree.

Maryland Rule 4-345(b) states that a “court may modify or reduce or strike, but may not increase the length of, a sentence” once the sentence has been imposed. Even though a prison sentence is considered to be increased in ⁷⁰⁸ length when it is changed from a concurrent to a consecutive sentence, State v. Sayre, 314 Md. 559, 562 , 552 A.2d 553 (1989), this is not so when a death sentence is replaced by a prison term. “The penalty of death differs from all other forms of criminal punishment, not in degree but in kind.” Woods v. State, 315 Md. 591, 605 , 556 A.2d 236 (1989) (quoting Furman v. Georgia, 408 U.S. 238, 306 , 92 S.Ct. 2726, 2760 , 33 L.Ed.2d 346 (1972) (Stewart, J., concurring)). Death is the ultimate penalty. There are no other penalties permitted by our legal system which are more severe.

Thus, even if the death penalty were a concurrent sentence, a consecutive life sentence would still be a lesser punishment. But death is neither a concurrent nor consecutive sentence. Rather, it is a unique and sole sentence. No other sentence may be served with or after it.

As the appellant