Stevenson v. State

The majority has construed Article 23 of the Maryland Declaration of Rights to make juries in criminal cases the judges of the law only in certain circumstances, finding this permissible under the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The Court then upholds a murder conviction which is based upon an instruction empowering *190the jury to reject any or all of the trial judge’s other instructions, whether relating to the well-established elements of a particular crime, who has the burden of proof, the standard of proof, the defendant’s rights, etc. For several reasons, I believe…