Wallace v. State

After a jury trial in 2000, Appellant was convicted of first- and second-degree murder, first-degree assault, and the unlawful taking of a motor vehicle. In 2013, Appellant filed a Public Information Act request requesting the results of any testing performed on the hair fibers from the black t-shirt he was wearing when he was arrested in 1997. The State admitted that the black t-shirt was destroyed in 2003, after the appellate process was exhausted. In 2014, Appellant filed a petition in the circuit court requesting a hearing under Mc. Code Ann. Crim. Proc. 8-201(j)(3)(i) to determine whether the State’s failure to produce the requested evidence was the result of intentional and willful destruction. The circuit court denied the petition, concluding that the evidence did not constitute “scientific identification evidence” under the statute, and therefore, the State did not have a duty to preserve it. The Court of Appeals affirmed, holding that the circuit court did not err in denying appellant’s petition because the black t-shirt did not satisfy the statutory definition of “scientific identification evidence,” and therefore, the State did not have a duty to preserve it. View "Wallace v. State" on Justia Law