Gainer v. State

At a jury trial in the Criminal Court of Baltimore (Kaplan, J., presiding) appellant was convicted of murder in the second degree and was sentenced to a term of 22 years’ imprisonment. On this appeal, he assigns error principally in the trial court’s refusal to grant an instruction, under the “castle” doctrine, that there was no duty on his part to retreat because appellant was in his own home. A subsidiary assignment of error is that the State improperly requested appellant, during cross-examination, to identify the victim’s mother who was present in the courtroom. For the reasons stated, we…