Smallwood v. State

Petitioner was fifteen years old when he committed murder. Petitioner was charged as an adult, and the circuit court denied Petitioner’s request to transfer the case back to juvenile court. Twenty-six years later, the psychiatrist who originally examined Petitioner concluded that her original diagnosis that Petitioner was not legally insane at the time of the crime was incorrect and that Petitioner should have been deemed not criminally responsible (NCR) at the time of his criminal proceedings. Thereafter, Petitioner filed a petition for writ of actual innocence under Md. Code. Ann. Crim. Proc. 8-301, arguing that this revised expert opinion constituted newly discovered evidence that created a substantial possibility that the result of his 1985 prosecution may have been different. The circuit court denied the petition. The Court of Appeals affirmed, holding that, even if Petitioner was found NCR at the time of the 1985 proceeding, he was still guilty of killing the victim and was therefore not actually innocent of the crime for which he was convicted. View "Smallwood v. State" on Justia Law