State v. Booze

ROBERT M. BELL, Judge.

The issue presented in this case requires us once again to test the limits of a trial court’s discretion to permit the State to reopen its case in chief at the rebuttal stage of the trial. The Circuit Court for Baltimore City permitted the State to reopen its case at that stage of the trial to present the testimony of a witness, about whom, including the contents of his testimony, it was aware before it closed its case. At the instance of the respondents, Donald Eugene Booze, Jr. and Allen Shelton Snead, the Court of Special Appeals held that ruling to be an abuse of…