Williams v. State

The Court of Appeals affirmed the judgment of the Court of Special Appeals affirming Defendant’s conviction of second-degree assault. On appeal, Defendant argued that the trial court improperly admitted evidence of his 1990 battery conviction. The Court of Special Appeals held that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in allowing the State to impeach character witnesses with evidence of Defendant’s twenty-five-year-old battery conviction. The Supreme Court affirmed, holding that the trial court did not err in admitting evidence of Defendant’s 1990 battery conviction because (1) the 1990 conviction was not irrelevant as a matter of law because the conviction had some bearing on Defendant’s character for peacefulness; and (2) Maryland Rule 5-404 unambiguously does not provide a fifteen-year limitation for rebuttal evidence. View "Williams v. State" on Justia Law