Simmons v. State

COLE, Judge.

Henry Simmons was convicted of second degree murder by a jury in the Circuit Court for Baltimore City. The Court of Special Appeals affirmed. Simmons v. State, 66 Md.App. 629, 505 A.2d 577 (1986). This Court subsequently granted Simmons’s petition for a writ of certiorari in order to decide whether the trial court properly excluded expert testimony regarding Simmons’s subjective belief that self-defense was necessary to avoid imminent death or serious bodily injury.

Simmons, accused of murder, raised the defense of imperfect self-defense. His particular contentions before us arise…