Judge Asked Too Many Questions, Requiring New Trial
In a rare rebuke to the chief judge in Baltimore, a Maryland appellate court has found that he asked too many questions during a jury trial of an armed robbery case last year, requiring a reversal of the defendant’s conviction and a new trial.
The 125 questions that Baltimore City Circuit Judge John Prevas posed to witnesses violated the constitutional right of defendant Antwan Derrell Smith to a fair trial, the Court of Special Appeals held. Although it did not question the judge’s motives, the three-judge panel found that the questioning created an appearance of partiality, noting that the questioning was “acutely suggestive, coercive and manipulative,” according to the Daily Record.
Smith was represented on a pro bono basis by Paul Solomon, an associate at Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom for whom the appellate victory came in the first case he ever argued before the court. His 25-year-old client, who is serving a 30-year prison term at the Maryland Correctional Institution in Hagerstown, couldn’t be reached for comment.
The judge and the lawyer for the state didn’t respond to the Daily Record’s requests for comment.
Updated at 6:50 a.m. Friday to add more detail from the opinion and correctly note that the issue was the “appearance of partiality.”
