State v. Sewell

It is a fundamental rule of law that the public has a right to every persons' evidence. There are a small number of constitutional, common-law and statutory exceptions to that general rule, but they have been neither "lightly created nor expansively construed, for they are in derogation of the search for truth."

Ashford v. State , 147 Md. App. 1 , 63, 807 A.2d 732 (2002) (Moylan, J.) (emphasis removed) (quoting In re Cueto , 554 F.2d 14 , 15 (2d Cir. 1977) ). These exceptions are commonly known as privileges. This case asks us to balance the search for truth against one of the strongest…