Banks v. State

ADKINS, Judge.

A chance and brief encounter between two strangers at a Baltimore bus stop in the early morning hours of April 23, 1982, resulted in the death of Ernest Burley and a thirty year prison sentence for the appellant, Carl L. Banks.

During the fleeting moments in which these two confronted one another, Banks initiated a conversation about a pair of boots in the possession of Burley. Burley took offense. In forceful although inelegant language, he told Banks to sheer off. Had the two then attempted to settle their differences with fists or even with bludgeons, probably little of…