4122

VETOES

Article - Courts and Judicial Proceedings

Section 7-203

Annotated Code of Maryland

(1980 Replacement Volume and 1983 Supplement)

Preamble

WHEREAS, The Court of Appeals of Maryland held in State of

Maryland v. Mayor and City Council of Baltimore, 296 Md. 67,

(1983) that the City of Baltimore was liable to the State of
Maryland for court costs in certain criminal cases; and

WHEREAS, Because of that decision and the precedent created
by it, the counties and Baltimore City will be subject to
substantial liability for payment of current and future court
costs as well as large payments for costs which have accumulated
during the litigation concerning liability for these costs; and

WHEREAS, The General Assembly recognizes that these costs
will impose a substantial burden on the counties and Baltimore
City which has not been anticipated to be a liability of local
government, and that these payments have not been relied on as a
source of revenue by the State; and further recognizes that the
principal of assessing criminal court costs to local government
is obsolete; and

WHEREAS, The General Assembly recognizes that in the past
these costs have not been assessed or paid on a uniform basis by
the political subdivisions; and

WHEREAS, The General Assembly finds and determines that it
is in the public interest to relieve the counties and Baltimore
City of liability for these costs; and to refund the costs paid
by certain counties and Baltimore City in order that all the
subdivisions be on a uniform basis; now, therefore,

SECTION 1. BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF
MARYLAND, That the Laws of Maryland read as follows:

Article 38 - Fines and Forfeitures

[4A.

No person who may be prosecuted for any misdemeanor or
offense and discharged by the court on submission, or fined not
exceeding fifteen cents, or prosecuted for any crime and
acquitted on trial by jury, shall be burdened with the payment of
any costs or fees accruing on such prosecution, but all such
costs and fees, with the legal costs of the party accused, shall
be paid by the county; and no person taken upon any warrant or
capias on presentment where no bill of indictment is found shall
be liable to pay or give security for costs, but such costs shall