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Keywords

appealtrial

defendanttrialwill

Related Cases

Bowers v. State, 320 Md. 416, 578 A.2d 734, 59 USLW 2198

Facts

Marselle Jerome Bowers was charged with murder after the body of Monica McNamara was discovered, having been raped and strangled. Bowers was arrested after attempting to use McNamara's credit card and later confessed to being involved in her abduction, although he denied killing her. He was convicted of premeditated first-degree murder and sentenced to death, but after a series of appeals and a new sentencing proceeding, he sought post-conviction relief, claiming ineffective assistance of counsel.

On 9 July 1981 Maryland State Police discovered the body of Monica McNamara near a railroad overpass in Somerset County. Her death had been caused by strangulation. She had been raped and sodomized. Her car was found abandoned on a roadside in Worcester County, where it had been observed on the evening of 8 July.

Issue

Was Bowers denied effective assistance of counsel during his trial for murder?

The question is whether these shortcomings on Reddick's part meet the tests for determining whether counsel's representation is so deficient that it is constitutionally ineffective.

Rule

The court applied the standard from Strickland v. Washington, which requires showing that counsel's performance was deficient and that the deficient performance prejudiced the defense.

The tests are set forth in Strickland v. Washington, supra. We reviewed and applied them most recently in State v. Colvin, 314 Md. 1, 548 A.2d 506 (1988).

Analysis

The court found that Bowers's counsel, Solomon Reddick, failed to introduce critical evidence that could have supported Bowers's defense, including a Negroid hair found on the victim that did not match Bowers. Reddick's omissions and lack of investigation undermined the adversarial process, leading to a conclusion that Bowers did not receive reasonably effective assistance of counsel.

The failure to put in the Negroid hair evidence, combined with the failure to examine Ms. Hood, the Ramada Inn Manager, as to, at a minimum, the race of Bowers's companion at that hostelry, violated at least two duties of counsel specifically listed in Strickland: the 'duty to bring to bear such skill and knowledge as will render the trial a reliable adversarial testing process' and the 'overarching duty to advocate the defendant's cause.'

Conclusion

The court concluded that Bowers was denied effective assistance of counsel and set aside his conviction.

Accordingly, the post-conviction court should have set aside Bowers's conviction, as well as his sentence.

Who won?

Bowers prevailed in the case because the court found that he was denied effective assistance of counsel, which warranted setting aside his conviction.

Bowers, in his statement to Trooper Hornung, claimed that Peterson had been the actual killer of McNamara.

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