Appeals in the Court of Special Appeals

JurisdictionMaryland

VI. Appeals in the Court of Special Appeals

A. Overview

Unlike an appeal from the District Court to the Circuit Court in a criminal case, which is always tried de novo, an appeal from the Circuit Court to the Court of Special Appeals and Court of Appeals is never in the form of a trial de novo and is always an appeal on the record.

In the Court of Special Appeals, the defendant prevails about one time in eight. The good news for the defendant is that, if there are, for example, five appellate issues, the defendant can lose on four issues and still win the appeal. Thus, the bad news for the State is that if it loses on any one issue, it loses the appeal.

Even though the State is required to prevail on appeal on each issue for a defendant's conviction to be wholly affirmed, the good news for the State is that it has three ways to prevail on each issue. The State's first argument may be that the issue is not before the appellate court because the defendant failed to preserve that issue for appellate review, and thus there is no appeal. Moreover, there is no reason for the Court to recognize "plain error" when the defendant failed to preserve the issue.

The State's second argument is that, even if the defendant did preserve the issue for appeal, the trial court ruled correctly and committed no legal error. The State's third argument is "so what?" This argument is that, even if the defendant preserved the issue, and even...

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