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Loscomb v. Maryland5/19/1980
-- PREFACE --
This case was argued before the Court on December 10, 1979. We issued an opinion on January 10, 1980. Appellant filed a motion for reconsideration. We granted that motion and recalled the opinion as filed on January 10, 1980. As a result of our reconsideration, we modify our original opinion.
-- THE LAW --
Whenever an operator of a motor vehicle is believed, while "intoxicated," to have caused the death of another person as a result of the manner in which he or she drove his or her
motor vehicle, the operator is subject to being charged with either or both of two distinct violations of the Criminal Law.
Md. Ann. Code art. 27, § 388 provides:
"Every person causing the death of another as the result of the driving, operation or control of an automobile, motor vehicle, motorboat, locomotive, engine, car, streetcar, train or other vehicle in a grossly negligent manner, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor to be known as 'manslaughter by automobile, motor vehicle, motorboat, locomotive, engine, car, streetcar, train or other vehicle,' and the person so convicted shall be sentenced to jail or the house of correction for not more than three years, or be fined not more than $1,000.00 or be both fined and imprisoned.
In any indictment or warrant for manslaughter by automobile, motor vehicle, motorboat, locomotive, engine, car, streetcar, train or other vehicle, it shall not be necessary to set forth the manner and means of death. It shall be sufficient to use a formula substantially to the following effect: 'That A-B on the . . . day of . . ., nineteen hundred and . . . at the County (City) aforesaid, unlawfully, in a grossly negligent manner did kill and slay C-D.'"
Cognizant of the degree of difficulty confronting State's Attorneys' efforts to prove "gross negligence" in order to establish guilt under section 388, the Legislature enacted a new substantive offense that contained many of the elements of manslaughter by motor vehicle, but added the additional factor of "intoxication," and reduced the "gross
negligence" standard of section 388 to "negligence." Md. Ann. Code art. 27, § 388A.
The title to Laws 1978, ch. 454, declares that:
"FOR the purpose of providing that any person causing the death of another as the result of his negligent driving, operation or control of a motor vehicle while intoxicated is guilty of a misdemeanor; specifying a name for the misdemeanor; setting the penalties for the misdemeanor; specifying that an indictment for the crime need not contain certain information; providing a form for the indictment; defining intoxicated as it relates to this crime. . . ." (Emphasis supplied.)
Immediately thereafter, the crime of "Homicide by motor vehicle while intoxicated," section 388A was added to Article 27 of the Maryland Code. Section 388A provides in pertinent part:
"(a) In this section 'intoxicated' has the same meaning as indicated in and is subject to the same presumptions and evidentiary rules of § 10-307 of the Courts Article regarding intoxication under the vehicle laws of this State.
(b) Any person causing the death of another as the result of his negligent driving, operation or control of a motor vehicle while intoxicated is guilty of a misdemeanor to be known as 'homicide by motor vehicle while intoxicated,' and the person so convicted shall be punished by imprisonment for not more than two yea
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