Samson v. State

Paul Samson was convicted in the Circuit Court for Kent County of distributing, and conspiracy to -distribute, a controlled dangerous substance of the “Schedule III” variety. The “substance,” identified as phendimetrazine, was not listed in the statute, Md. Code, Art. 27, Sec. 279 (c) as subject to the distribution proscription in Sec. 286 (a) (1). The jury was told by the State’s Attorney in opening statement that “The Secretary of Health has deemed it to be a dangerous substance . . .”, however, the jury was not made privy to the State’s reasoning behind that theory. At argument we were so…