Smith v. State

On November 29, 1972, appellant, Robert Ashley Smith, nineteen, was a recent high school graduate, employed at $110 per week in a frozen food plant in Northeast Washington and living with his parents in Bowie, Prince George’s County, Maryland. Early that morning, George and Lucille Brown, a middle-aged couple who resided across the street from the Smiths, died in the holocaust of their home which was discovered on fire shortly after one a.m.

Indicted thereafter for two counts of first degree murder and one count of arson, appellant was convicted of all three counts in the Circuit Court for…