36 Md. App. 405 - Williamson v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

8 state decisions

Most-quoted passages

The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 8 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “"Maryland recognizes the common law distinction between principals and accessories before the fact. One charged as a principal cannot be convicted on evidence sufficient to show that he was an accessory but insufficient to show that he was a principal. Persons who themselves commit the crime, either by their own hand or by the hand of an innocent agent, are principals in the first degree. Persons who are present, either actually or constructively, and who aid and abet the commission of the crime but do not themselves commit it, are principals in the second degree, provided there is a guilty principal in the first degree. Persons who procure, counsel or command the perpetrator, but who are not present, actively or constructively, at such perpetration, are accessories before the fact. Thus, the critical difference between a principal and an accessory before the fact is presence or absence during the commission of the crime. "Here, in order to sustain the appellant's conviction, the State was required to prove that the appellant herself committed the murder or was either actually or constructively present when the crime was committed." Id. at 406-07. (Footnotes omitted.)”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. State v. Williamson

2. “"There was no evidence to show that on the night of the murder [Mrs. Williamson] helped the murderer in any way. There was nothing to show that she encouraged her husband to drink so that he would fall asleep in the car. Neither was there evidence to show that she signalled the murderer to come and commit the murder, nor that the murderer ever contacted her in the house. Finally, there was nothing to show that she was awake at the time of the murder or that, if awake, she could see the murder site. "In the absence of such evidence, the fact that [Mrs. Williamson] had contact with Merrick before the crime was committed, even when coupled with the fact that she was physically close to the murder site, does not show or support a rational inference that at the time the murder was committed [she] helped or was so situated as to be able to help the murderer. Consequently, the evidence was insufficient to show [her] constructive presence at the time of the commission of the crime. Accordingly, it was insufficient to show that she was a principal in her husband's murder and to sustain her conviction for that murder. We shall reverse." Id. at 409. (Footnote omitted.)”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. State v. Williamson

3. “"A principal in the second degree is one who is guilty of felony by reason of having aided, counseled, commanded or encouraged the commission thereof in his presence, either actual or constructive." Id. at 658. * * * "An accessory before the fact is one who is guilty of felony by reason of having aided, counseled, commanded or encouraged the commission thereof, without having been present either actually or constructively at the moment of perpetration." Id. at 663.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the dissent
   e.g. State v. Williamson