42 Md. App. 520 - Slye v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

30 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 30 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “The “manifest injustice” rationale enunciated in Rose is, we think, clearly applicable to the instant appeal. Here, appellant contends that the larceny conviction, for which he received a sentence of 10 years, should merge into the shoplifting conviction, for which he received a 3-year term. The latter, it is true, was concurrent. However, if we were not to entertain the merger issue because of Md. Rule 1085, appellant is faced with the prospect of an additional seven years incarceration for an offense which he claims, on the authority of Newton v. State, 280 Md. 260 , 373 A.2d 262 (1977), should have been merged into the conviction for which he received the lesser, 3-year, sentence. The situation is, in practical effect, indistinguishable from that where consecutive sentences are imposed and considerations of “manifest injustice” are equally present. In this respect, we deem it appropriate to point out that, upon close scrutiny, the cases wherein we have declined to review the question of merger of concurrent sentences because of Rule 1085, do not involve these considerations. In those cases, unlike the present appeal, the sentence imposed for the conviction proposed to be merged was less than or, at most, equal to the sentence imposed for the other conviction. Therefore, under the circumstances of this case, we shall decide the merger question.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 185 Md. App. 580 - Webb v. State

2. “Thus, under both federal double jeopardy principles and Maryland merger law, the test for determining the identity of offenses is the required evidence test. If each offense requires proof of a fact which the other does not, the offenses are not the same and do not merge. However, if only one offense requires proof of a fact which the other does not, the offenses are deemed the same, and separate sentences for each offense are prohibited.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 86 Md. App. 74 - Lancaster v. State

3. “When a merger is necessitated, the `lesser' crime is merged into the `greater' and the judgment of conviction and the sentence on the lesser offense are vacated.”

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