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THE PRESIDENT: Delegate Willoner,
do you desire to offer your Amendment L?
DELEGATE WILLONER: Yes, Mr.
Chairman, if now is the time to bring up
Amendment L.
THE PRESIDENT: Pages will distrib-
ute Amendment L, L for love. This will be
Amendment No. 2.
The Clerk will read the Amendment.
READING CLERK: Amendment No. 2
to Committee Recommendation R&P-1 and
R&P-2 as amended by Report No. S&D-9 by
Delegate Willoner and others.
On page 2 immediately preceding section
1.06, Grand Jury Indictment, add the fol-
lowing new section :
"Section 1. Criminal Jury, Judge of Law
and Fact.
"In the trial of all criminal cases, the
jury shall be the judges of the law, as well
as of fact, except that the court may pass
upon the sufficiency of the evidence to sus-
tain a conviction."
THE PRESIDENT: The amendment
submitted by Delegate Willoner and sec-
onded by the co-sponsors, the Chair recog-
nizes Delegate Willoner.
DELEGATE WILLONER: Mr. Chair-
man, this is something that has had much
debate, and I do not intend to debate it
again except that at the last vote it failed
by two votes and three very important
prominent people in this Convention were
absent at the time. I should say it failed
by two votes, and three very prominent
people who wanted to have a say on this
matter, which would have resulted in it
being included in the constitution, were un-
able to do so.
As I have explained several times against
those people in this body who thought this
was something that should have gone out
because it was archaic, it has been devel-
oped that this provision has meaning in
our judicial system today, that it prevents
at least three things: it prohibits judges
from directing verdicts of guilty; it pre-
vents blackjack instructions; and it per-
mits inconsistent verdicts, practices which
have grown up in our State and practices
that should not be changed without a great
deal of research and thought.
The opponents of this have never done
that research, and have never told us what
it would mean to change this provision.
Therefore we, the sponsors of this amend-
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ment, wish it to be included in the present
constitution.
It is a right that has been a right of
the people of this State since Maryland
has been in existence, and we feel this
should not be changed without a great
deal of research and study to see how it
would affect the laws of Maryland.
There are probably fifty or sixty an-
notations behind this particular provision.
There are three major objections to it.
Two of them have no merit at all. One is
that it has prevented development of
criminal law in this State. Please listen to
this, because several lawyers honestly be-
lieve that it has and it did up until 1950
when it was amended and the clause "the
court may pass upon sufficiency of the evi-
dence to sustain a conviction" was added.
That language has permitted the Court of
Appeals to develop what evidence is neces-
sary to establish what a prima facie case
is in a particular crime.
Secondly, it is argued that the jurors
cannot understand when the lawyers argue
law to them. It is a very, very rare oc-
currence when the law really gets litigated.
This is not the purpose of keeping this
provision in, to permit the lawyers to
argue except in the rarest of cases.
The point is that it prevents the judge
from directing verdicts, a fear that I do
not particularly have myself. It does pre-
vent the judges from delivering blackjack
verdicts, and the federal law in this area
permits blackjack verdicts today, according
to the last decision the Supreme Court has
made concerning the subject.
I have not checked the other fifty juris-
dictions, nor have the opponents of this.
We do know that Massachusetts permits
directed verdicts. I do not know what
other states do. The majority rule seems to
be that they do not permit directed verdicts.
This is an important right of our State.
It should not be changed without knowing
what we are doing, and I suggest that we
leave it in.
THE PRESIDENT: Delegate Kiefer.
DELEGATE KIEFER: Mr. Chairman,
Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen, I am
not sure about my batting average, but
one motto I have gone by for the last three
months I am going to quote to you, il-
legitimus non carborundum esta, and I
continue to go by that, bloody but un-
bowed.
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