In 1915, Maryland's voters ratified a
constitutional amendment granting to
the legislature the power to provide for
the manner of releasing convicts upon
parole. Article III, Section 60, reads:
"The General Assembly of Mary-
land shall have the power to provide
by suitable general enactment (a) for
the suspension of sentence by the
Court in criminal cases; (b) for any
form of the indeterminate sentence in
criminal cases, and (c) for the release
upon parole in whatever manner the
General Assembly may prescribe, of
convicts imprisoned under sentence
for crimes."
According to State v. Fisher, "the
constitutional provision . . . was evi-
dently designed to protect the existing
statutory provision from attack on the
ground that it violated the separation
of powers doctrine, as held in some
states."2
The Maryland Constitutional Con-
vention Commission has stated that
". . . this provision is unnecessary in that
the legislature has the inherent power
to pass general legislation of this type."3
The provision may be eliminated as un-
necessary because (a) the Separation of
Power's Doctrine is not violated, and
(b) indeterminate sentences do not pre-
sent a federal constitutional issue.
Article III, Section 60, makes provi-
sion for an indeterminate sentence in
criminal cases. Court interpretations of
the Defective Delinquent Act, Article
1 This article was prepared for the Commis-
sion by Paul H. Voreacos: A.B., 1951, Har-
vard University; M.B.A., 1953, Harvard Uni-
versity; LL.B., 1965, University of Maryland.
2 State v. Fisher, 204 Md. 307, 314 (1954).
3 Comm. on Miscellaneous Provisions Md.
Constitutional Convention Comm'n, Third Re-
port 1-2 (June 20, 1966).
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31B of the 1951 Code, uphold the inde-
terminate sentence without reliance on
Article III, Section 60. In Maryland the
indeterminate sentence is applicable
only to defective delinquents because
"although the legislature is authorized
... to provide for indeterminate sen-
tences in criminal cases, it has made no
provision for such sentences to the
Penitentiary."4
"The general purpose of statutes
providing for an indeterminate sen-
tence is to make the punishment fit
the offender rather than the crime,
and the underlying design of such a
sentence is to subject the offender to
reformative influences, . . . but such
purpose also includes the protection
of society from the offender who has
not reformed."6
The Defective Delinquent Act states
in Section 5 :
"... a defective delinquent shall be
defined as an individual who, by the
demonstration of persistent aggra-
vated anti-social or criminal behavior,
evidences a propensity toward crim-
inal activity, and who is found to have
either such intellectual deficiency or
emotional unbalance, or both, as to
clearly demonstrate an actual danger
to society so as to require such con-
finement and treatment, when appro-
priate, as may make it reasonably safe
for society to terminate the confine-
ment and treatment."6
The Act state;, in Section 9(b) :
"If the court or the jury . . . shall
find . . . that the said defendant is a
4 Cumberland v. Warden of Md. Peniten-
tiary, 225 Md. 636, n. 637 (1961).
5 24B C. J. S. Criminal Law § 1993 (a)
(1962).
6 MD. code ann. art. 31B, § 5 (1961).
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