Timothy Scott Sherman v. William L. Smith, Warden, Maryland House of Correction-Annex John Joseph Curran, Attorney General for the State of Maryland

The United States Constitution guarantees criminal defendants the right to “a fair trial in a fair tribunal” and a jury verdict “based upon the evidence developed at the trial.” Irvin v. Dowd, 366 U.S. 717, 722, 81 S.Ct. 1639, 1642, 6 L.Ed.2d 751 (1961) (citations omitted). “This is true, regardless of the heinousness of the crime charged, the apparent guilt of the offender or the station in life which he occupies.” Id. In the matter before us, neither the trial nor the tribunal was fair because a juror made an unauthorized and unsupervised visit to the scene of the crime which, though…