Williams v. State

Henderson, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. The appellant in this case was convicted of murder in the first degree, in a trial before a court and jury. He was sentenced to death. On this appeal counsel does not challenge the sufficiency of the evidence of a hold-up, and killing in the course of an armed robbery on March 16, 1961, to support the charge of murder, nor does he challenge the sufficiency of the evidence ⁶⁰⁸ to disprove insanity relied on as the chief defense.

He presses only two contentions, (1) that the trial court erred in its probably inadvertent instruction to the jury as to the burden of proof that the confession of the accused was voluntary, and (2) that the court erred in overruling objections to the cross-examination of a witness as to the prior criminal record of the accused. The State contends that the first contention is not properly before us, since there was no objection taken to any part of the court’s charge. We find it unnecessary to pass on that contention, since we think there was reversible error in the court’s ruling on the second point. The accused did not take the stand, and, as we have noted, his chief defense was insanity.

A number of medical witnesses testified, and it was brought out without objection that he had been committed to Boy’s Village for juvenile delinquencies, and had also been in Crownsville for an extended period. Mrs. Henrietta Urine testified that she had raised Walter, after his parents died, and testified as to his conduct resulting in commitments to Boy’s Village and afterwards to Crownsville. She testified that after he was released from Crownsville in 1958, she took him to the Maryland General Hospital every week until he ran way from home in 1960. In cross-examination the State’s Attorney asked the witness whether Walter had been away from home on other occasions, to which she replied that she could not remember.

She then admitted, in response to a question, to which there was no objection, that he had once been in jail over night. She was then asked whether he had not been in the House of Correction from October of 1956 to June 1958. Over objection, she admitted that she could recall that. Counsel for the accused objected “to this line of questioning”, to which the Court replied “overruled”.

The witness then answered, in reply to a specific question, that he had been in the Baltimore City Jail from September 24, 1958 to December 23,1958. The State does not deny that it would