Ford v. State

This case concerns two issues involving the admissibility of evidence in a murder trial. First, we consider admissibility of character evidence of the victim under Maryland Rule 5-404(a)(2)(C), which provides: "In a homicide case, the prosecutor may offer evidence of the alleged victim's trait of peacefulness to rebut evidence that the victim was the first aggressor." Here, the trial court, over defense counsel's objections, permitted the State, Respondent, to present evidence of the alleged victim's trait of peacefulness in its case-in-chief during direct-examination of two State's witnesses…