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and the established modes of procedure as
theretofore practiced be always the subject
of jury trial. It could never have been
intended to embrace every species of ac-
cusation involving either criminal or penal
consequences."
Still later the Court of Appeals reaf-
firmed this rule in the case called Danner v.
The State of Maryland, in which the court
said the following, and I am now again
quoting from 89 Md., at page 226. The
Court of Appeals said:
"The right to demand a jury trial,
being as we have thus seen guaranteed
only to such crimes and accusations as
had by the regular course of the law and
established modes of procedure as there-
tofore practiced, it becomes necessary to
inquire as to what class of offenses en-
titled the party to its enjoyment. It is
clear that it cannot be demanded in
many minor offenses."
Ladies and gentlemen of the Committee,
this same rule is the rule in the Supreme
Court of the United States. As you know,
the Sixth Amendment is an absolute guar-
antee of the jury trial in all criminal cases,
but the Supreme Court has faced this prob-
lem in many situations, and I am merely
quoting from one of the most recent cases,
Cheff v. Schnackenberg, in which the Su-
preme Court said the following, citing
many cases: "It is settled by the decisions
of this Court that the right of trial by jury
does not extend to every criminal pro-
ceeding. At the time of the adoption of the
Constitution, there were 'numerous offenses
commonly described as petty which were
tried summarily without a jury."
So the posture that we find ourselves in
this particular matter is this. There is a
body of law in this State, cases which I
have read, together with the decisions of
the Supreme Court, which hold that where
you have a petty offense it is not necessary
to have or to raquire constitutionally a
jury trial. If the Chairman of the Com-
mittee is correct in his assumption that the
blue paper does not seek to change this,
then, of course, we have no problem. But,
if his words taken literally mean that in
every case a trial by jury is required, then
I say that that is not the law of this State,
has never been, and I think we need an
amendment to clarify it.
I may point out one other facet of this.
The Maryland cases generally speaking,
which have addressed themselves to this
question, have dealt not with Article 21 of
the Declaration of Rights from which the
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Committee took its words, but rather from
Article 5 of the Declaration of Rights.
That article says, and I am quoting, "that
the inhabitants of Maryland are entitled to
the common law of England and the trial
by jury according to the course of that
law".
What the cases have said over and over
again is that the words, according to the
course of that law, means that there could
be these petty cases in which a jury trial
would not be required.
THE CHAIRMAN: You have two and a
half minutes, Delegate Case.
DELEGATE CASE: Now, thank you,
Mr. Chairman. It is the position of the
sponsors of this particular amendment that
what should be made clear is that we are
trying to preserve that particular facet of
the law.
Let me make it clear that what we are
not trying to do here and what this amend-
ment does not do is to deny a jury trial to
anybody who is otherwise entitled to it. Let
me make that perfectly clear and restate it
again: this does not deny to anyone a jury
trial who would not be entitled to it today
under the laws of the State of Maryland.
All it does is to preserve these classes of
petty cases from the complete requirement
that there must be a jury trial.
We think that probably this is what the
Committee really intended, but we feel that
because of the colloquy that is on the rec-
ord, it is necessary to clear the record and
to preserve and maintain the law of Mary-
land as it stands today.
THE CHAIRMAN: Are there any ques-
tions of the sponsor of the amendment?
Delegate Weidemeyer.
DELEGATE WEIDEMEYER: Mr. Presi-
dent, I would like to ask Delegate Case, in
order to make clear in this amendment it-
self, if it should be adopted, rather than in
a colloquy here, or by reference to reports,
if he would mind adding after the word
"offenses" the statement "for which trial
by jury is not required by law at the time
of the adoption of this constitution"?
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Case.
DELEGATE CASE: I do not think, Dele-
gate Weidemeyer, that that really adds
anything because there could be a petty
offense that would be developed sometime in
the future. The whole idea of this, of course,
is to free the courts of the laborious han-
dling of jury cases, let us say, parking
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