Walker v. State

The review of the four convictions in this case is routinely unremarkable; the review of the four sentences, however, presents a series of intriguing problems involving the merger of offenses, the legitimacy of the open-ended common law sentence, the tangled relationship between the common law crime of attempt and the statutory aggravated assaults, and finally the impact of those statutory aggravated assaults upon common law assault. The appellant, Ricky Arvin Walker, was convicted by a Baltimore City jury, presided over by Judge Peter D. Ward, of (1) attempted first-degree rape, (2)…