Mollar v. State

The question we are asked to decide is an evidentiary one relating to the identity exception to the rule excluding evidence of prior offenses. The rule was iterated by the Court of Appeals in Wentz v. State, 159 Md. 161, 164 and reiterated most forcefully in this Court by Chief Judge Murphy, now Chief Judge of the Court of Appeals. After reciting the general rule of exclusion, the Chief Judge turned to the exceptions which he elected to denominate rules of admissibility rather than exceptions to the rule of exclusion:

“As more particularly crystalized in Cothron v. State, 138 Md. 101, 110, the…