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Jeffries v. State1/29/1997
icate felony of armed carjacking. The appellant maintains that he was improperly convicted of felony-murder because, at the time of the commission of the offense, carjacking was not one of the specifically enumerated felonies listed in Md. Ann. Code, art. 27 § 410 (1996), which could give rise to a conviction of first-degree felony-murder. In support of his argument, the appellant points out that the offense was committed on September 9, 1994, and that carjacking did not become one of the offenses listed in section 410 until October 1, 1994, approximately one month after the crime. Thus, the appellant asserts, he was "convicted of a crime that did not exist at the time of the incident[.]"
We fully agree with the appellant's recitation of the legislative history of carjacking as one of the felonies spelled out in § 410 which will raise a murder committed in its perpetration or attempted perpetration to the level of murder in the first degree. The appellant fails to persuade us, however, as to what significance that legislative history has on his post-verdict Motion to Dismiss. Indeed, before we can even look at the content of the appellant's motion, we must try to determine what kind of a motion it is. Frankly, we are at a loss.
It is important to keep in clear focus what precise action of Judge Beard, either of commission or of omission, it was that the appellant now claims was reversible error. Significantly, it is Judge Beard's denial of the appellant's post-verdict Motion to Dismiss--and nothing else. On this issue, the appellant does not directly attack any judicial action taken or omitted in the course of the trial itself. To the extent that anything--such as the jury instruction on felony-murder--is mentioned, it is only by way of providing context for Judge Beard's ruling on the post-verdict Motion to Dismiss. No alleged trial error is even raised as the direct subject of this appeal. To the extent to which any trial action is even alluded to, it is only as a factor arguably bearing on Judge Beard's denial of the appellant's post-verdict Motion to Dismiss.
In examining the propriety of the appellant's motion (whatever kind of a motion it turns out to be), the time frame assumes critical importance. The trial proper was concluded and the jury verdicts were rendered on March 24, 1995. The post-verdict Motion to Dismiss was filed on October 23, seven months after the verdicts were announced. A hearing on the Motion was held and it was denied on November 28, eight months after the adjudicative phase of the trial had been completed.
Our first question is, "Why did the appellant file something that he chose to title a Motion to Dismiss?" The redress that he sought by way of this Motion--filed on October 23 and resolved on November 28--was a form of post-verdict remedy. A Motion to Dismiss is not inherently, if at all, a post-verdict or post-trial remedy. An appeal, on the other hand, is a post-trial remedy. A request to a circuit court for en banc reconsideration is a post-trial remedy. A post-conviction petition is a post-trial remedy. A motion to a trial judge to reconsider a sentence is a post-trial remedy. A request to a circuit court for a sentence review panel is a post-trial remedy.
A quintessential post-verdict remedy, addressed to the judge who presided at the trial, is a Motion for New Trial as provided by Md. Ann. Code, art. 27 § 594 (1996) and Maryland Rule 4-331. To the natural question of why the appellant did not entitle his request for post-verdict relief in this case a Motion for New Trial, the answer is almost certainly that provided by Love v. State, 95 Md. App. 420, 423, 621 A.2d 910 (1993):
The Motion for New Trial is o
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