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Thomas v. Maryland12/6/1993
o murder; the punishment should be limited by the maximum for assault with intent to murder. If, however, there were conceivably two or more intents, e.g., clubbing a woman with the intent to disable and then rape her, then the punishment for the assault would only be limited to the maximum for an assault with intent to rape and an assault with intent to disable consecutively. Also, if the assault and battery were committed on a victim of a class deserving special protection, that should aggravate the offense, and the assault and battery might not be simply a lesser included offense. For assaults on people deserving special protection, the punishment might permissibly exceed the maximum for assault with intent to disable or murder. For example, assaults on infants, the handicapped, the aged, police officers, prison guards, etc., have aggravating elements and might not be simply a lesser included offense of assault with intent to disable or assault with intent to murder. Had the majority based its holding on an extension of Simms and Johnson, I would be in full agreement. The Court,
however, rejects this common law limitation and concludes that " Simms has direct application only when a greater offense has been charged and jeopardy has attached with respect to that greater offense." 333 Md. at 91, 634 A.2d at 4.
II.
The majority opinion reaffirms the line of cases holding that a twenty-year sentence for the common law crime of assault and battery is permissible. It then goes on to do something that this Court has never done before; it reverses, as cruel and unusual punishment, a sentence within the permissible range of punishment for the crime.
Neither sentence imposed for Mr. Thomas's course of vicious, escalating spousal abuse should result in this Court's first reversal of a sentence as cruel and unusual punishment. There were good reasons why the trial judge intended to impose the maximum permissible sentences permitted by law for the April 2nd assault and battery as well as for the April 8th assault and battery. Contained in the court file is a letter, from the manager of the family violence shelter who was assisting Ms. Thomas, which states that "[Mr. Thomas] has demonstrated his contempt for the law and we feel he is capable and serious of carrying out his threat to kill Ms. Thomas." The twenty-year sentence for the April 2nd offense was harsh, but it was unquestionably within the range of punishment permitted for the crime of assault and battery by a substantial number of prior cases. The sentence was justified by Mr. Thomas's record of assaults and his intent, as evidenced by his threats and his actions, to kill Ms. Thomas whenever he is released from prison.
The majority acknowledges that this Court and the Court of Special Appeals "have sustained 20-year sentences for common law assault against both constitutional and legal attacks . . . ." 333 Md. at 98, 634 A.2d at 8. A case on point is Roberts v. Warden, 242 Md. 459, 219 A.2d 254, cert. denied, 385 U.S. 876, 87 S.Ct. 156, 17 L.Ed.2d 104 (1966), where the
defendant pled guilty to two counts of common law assault on two police officers. The nature and severity of the assaults in Roberts were apparently not considered relevant by this Court because they were not even discussed. The only way one can piece together the facts surrounding the assaults is through prior case history, which indicates that Roberts claimed he pled guilty to two technical common law assaults on police officers. He attempted to explain the assaults he pled guilty to by claiming he
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