Case Information
*1 REPORTED IN THE COURT OF SPECIAL APPEALS OF MARYLAND No. 2126 September Term, 2014 ______________________________________ ROBERT AMOS PATTERSON v.
STATE OF MARYLAND ______________________________________ Eyler, Deborah S., Arthur,
Kenney, James A., III (Senior Judge, Specially Assigned), JJ.
______________________________________ Opinion by Arthur, J.
______________________________________ Filed: September 27, 2016 *2
Robert Amos Patterson, an inmate representing himself, appeals from the denial of a petition for writ of actual innocence, in which he challenged his 1993 convictions for first-degree murder and related handgun offenses. He raises a single question, which we have rephrased as follows: Did the circuit court abuse its discretion in denying the petition for writ of actual innocence on the ground that the unequivocal conclusion by State’s expert on comparative microscopic matching did not create a substantial or significant possibility that the result at trial may have been different? [1]
Finding no abuse of discretion in the circuit court’s denial of the petition, we shall affirm.
BACKGROUND
For background, we set forth part of the factual summary from this Court’s unreported opinion in Patterson’s direct appeal:
On July 9, 1992, Rudolph Holland was fatally shot at 49 Clay Street, near Annapolis, Maryland. Several witnesses testified that they saw two black men, one with dark skin, and the other with lighter skin, either in the area of the shooting or running from the scene. Although some were able to identify [Patterson] as the man with the lighter skin, either by a photo array or in court, some were either unable positively to identify [him], or identified someonе other than [him] as the man with the lighter skin. Officer William Hyatt, of the District of Columbia’s Metropolitan Police Department, was the State’s principal witness. Officer Hyatt testified that on July 17, 1992, he responded to the area of 24th Street and Benning Road in Northeast Washington, D.C., after receiving a report that suspects in another shooting were in that area. On arriving at the scene, Hyatt observed the three suspects, one of whom was later identified as [Patterson]. According to Officer Hyatt, [Patterson] and the other men fled, and *3 [Patterson] discarded his gun after removing the bullets from it. [Patterson] was apprehended a short time later and placed under arrest for possession of a handgun. About four months later, [Patterson] was arrested by the Annapolis City Police Department for the Clay Street murder. At trial, a firearms examiner from the Federal Bureau of Investigation [“FBI”] testified that the bullet recovered from the victim of the Clay Street shooting had been from the .38 caliber gun dropped in Washington, D.C., by [Patterson] on July 17th.
[Patterson], as well as several other witnesses for the defense, testified that [he] was at a barbecue in Forestville, Maryland, on July 9th. [Patterson] testified that he did not have a gun with him on July 17th and thus could not have discarded a gun before being arrested.
Patterson v. State , No. 1932, Sept. Term 1993, slip op. at 1-2 (filed July 28, 1994) (per curiam).
Although it was not an issue during Pattеrson’s trial or direct appeal, the testimony of the FBI firearms examiner is now the subject of the instant appeal. That examiner, FBI Special Agent Joseph Williamson, testified, without objection, that the bullet recovered from the murder victim, as well as several other bullets recovered from the Annapolis crime scene, had been fired by the .38 caliber handgun that Officer Hyatt had recovered from Patterson, “to the exclusiоn of any other firearm in the world.”
During closing argument, the prosecutor relied upon Special Agent Williamson’s unequivocal conclusion that the gun recovered from Patterson definitely fired the fatal shots. He told the jury that “the bullet was fired from this gun to the exclusion of all handguns ever made anywhere in the world”; that “[n]o other gun anywhere in the world could have fired those bullets except that one, that gun that was in the hands of Robert Patterson оn July 17th”; and that the silver handgun, found in Patterson’s possession *4 eight days after the Annapolis murder, “definitely fired the bullets that killed Rudolph Holland[.]”
The prosecutor repeated these unequivocal assertions in the rebuttal phase of closing argument. There he told the jury that the “gun was analyzed by the F.B.I. and the bullets were tested by the F.B.I., and there’s no doubt that the gun and the bullets that Mr. Patterson had in his hand were fired by that gun, the bullets that killed Mr. Holland.” He concluded with the аssertion that “[y]ou’ve got Mr. Patterson in Washington, D.C., in possession of the gun that fired the bullets to the exclusion of all other guns in the world that killed Rudolph C. Holland.”
The jury found Patterson guilty of first-degree murder, use of a handgun in the commission of a crime of violence, and use of a handgun in the commission of a felony. The circuit court sentenced Patterson to a term of life imprisonment for first-degree murder and a consecutive term of 20 years’ imprisonment for one of the handgun convictions.
In 1993, Patterson filed a motion for new trial on the ground of newly-discovered evidence – an affidavit, executed by an attorney who had investigated his case before trial, which contradicted the testimony of the arresting officer. The circuit court denied his motion, and this Court affirmed in an unreported opinion. Patterson v. State , supra , No. 1932, Sept. Term 1993. Later, Patterson unsuccessfully pursued post-conviction relief. Patterson v. State , No. 25, Sept. Term 1998 (filed June 25, 1998) (per curiam); Patterson v. State , No. 1355, Sept. Term 2010 (filed Mar. 24, 2011) (per curiam).
In 2013, Patterson, acting through counsel, filed a petition for a writ of actual
innocence. That petition alleged that Patterson’s trial had been tainted by the admission
of testimony, from Special Agent Williamson, regarding the use of comparative bullet-
lead analysis (“CBLA”), a technique that has been determined to be unreliable and
inadmissible under the
Frye-Reed
test governing admissibility of sсientific evidence in
Maryland courts.
Clemons v. State
,
Patterson, acting through the same counsel, filed a second petition for writ of actual innocence, which is the subject of the instant appeal. In that petition, Patterson challenged the State’s use of firearms identification evidence, which, as characterized by Special Agent Williamson, is “a comparative microscopic study that permits the identification of bullets and cartridge cases as having been . . . fired by a particular firearm to the exclusion of any other firearm.”
“[C]omparative microscopic matching” “consists of attempting to identify thе
‘toolmarks’ impressed upon the bullet fragments and cartridge casings often recovered
from a crime scene, in an effort to determine whether the toolmarks impressed upon the
evidence could have been created by a firearm that has been connected to a suspect.”
Fleming v. State
,
Citing recent studies and court decisions that allegedly reveal the limitations of drawing the unequivocal conclusions that Special Agent Williamson expressed, Patterson claims to have identified newly-discovered evidence, which could not have been discovered through the exercise of due diligence in time to file a motion for new trial under Md. Rule 4-331(c), but which creates a substantial possibility that, had this evidence been admitted during his 1993 trial, a different outcome would have resulted.
The circuit court conducted a hearing on Patterson’s petition. In a written opinion, the court concluded that the evidence would not have substantially affected the jury’s verdict. Accordingly, it denied the petition.
Patterson noted this timely appeal.
DISCUSSION
I.
A petition for writ of actual innocence, under Maryland Code (2001, 2008 Repl.
Vol., 2015 Supp.), § 8-301 of the Criminal Procedure Article (“CP”), gives a convicted
person “an oppоrtunity to seek a new trial based on newly discovered evidence that
speaks to his or her actual innocence[.]”
Douglas v. State
,
(a) A person charged by indictment or criminal information with a crime triable in circuit court and convicted of that сrime may, at any time, file a petition for writ of actual innocence in the circuit court for the county in which the conviction was imposed if the person claims that there is newly discovered evidence that:
(1) creates a substantial or significant possibility that the result may have been different, as that standard has been judicially determined; and (2) could not have been discovered in time to move for a new trial under Maryland Rule 4-331.
CP § 8-301(a).
*8
In brief summary, § 8-301(a) imposes three requirements upon a petitioner: (1) he
or she must come forward with “newly discovered evidence”; which (2) “creates a
substantial or significant possibility that the result [of his or her trial
[3]
] may have been
different”; and which (3) “could not have been discovered in time to move for a new trial
under Maryland Rule 4-331,” a requirement known as “due diligence.” If a petitioner
substantially complies with the requirements of CP § 8-301(b) and Rule 4-332(d) and
assеrts grounds that could, if proven, entitle the petitioner to relief, then he or she is
entitled to a hearing on that petition. CP § 8-301(e); Md. Rule 4-332(j)(1);
State v. Hunt
,
In a proceeding under CP § 8-301, the petitioner bears the burden of proof. CP §
8-301(g); Md. Rule 4-332(k). That burden stands in stark contrast to an appellant’s
burden in a direct appeal from a criminal conviction. If an appellant establishes error in a
direct appeal from a criminal conviction, the burden shifts to the State to show “‘that the
error in no way influenced the verdict.’”
Dionas v. State
,
Because the circuit court denied Patterson’s petition on the merits after a hearing,
we review the circuit court’s decision to deny that petition for abuse of discretion.
Hunt
,
II.
Patterson contends that the circuit court abused its discretion in denying his petition because, he says, the State’s еxpert in comparative microscopic matching, Special Agent Williamson, was erroneously permitted to testify that the .38 caliber revolver, recovered from him in Washington, D.C., fired the fatal shots “to the exclusion of any other firearm in the world.” He points out that the State relied upon that testimony both in closing argument and rebuttal. On that basis, he concludes that the alleged error “contributed to the verdict.”
In support of his claim of error, Patterson cites “recent scientific studies and the
emerging scholarly literature and case law recognizing the limitations of firearms
identification for making such emphatic and unequivocal conclusions.” He relies upon
*10
the following authorities: Adina Schwartz,
A Systemic Challenge to the Reliability and
Admissibility of Firearms and Toolmark Identification
, 6 Colum. Sci. & Tech. L. Rev. 2
(2005); National Research Council of the National Academies,
Strengthening Forensic
Science in the United States: A Path Forward
(The National Academies Press 2009),
available at https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/228091.pdf (last visited Aug. 4,
2016); and Richard Gryzbowski, et al.,
Firearms/Toolmark Identification: Passing the
Reliability Test Under Federal and State Evidentiary Standards
, 35 AFTE J. 209 (2003);
and several court decisions, including
United States v. Otero
,
Patterson contends that those studies, articles, and court decisions comprise newly- discovered evidence, which could not have been discovered through the exеrcise of due diligence in time to file a motion for new trial under Md. Rule 4-331(c), but which create *11 a substantial possibility that, had this evidence been admitted during his 1993 trial, a different outcome would have resulted. In effect, he maintains that his 1993 convictions were based upon junk science.
III.
We assume for the sake of argument that Patterson has identified newly-
discovered evidence that could not have been discovered through the exercisе of due
diligence in time to file a motion for new trial under Md. Rule 4-331(c).
[5]
Even on that
assumption, the circuit court did not abuse its discretion in concluding that Patterson had
failed to discharge his burden of showing “a substantial possibility that a different result
would have occurred in the trial . . . as a result of the newly discovered evidence.”
Yonga
,
As recently as 2010, this Court confirmed that comparative microscopic matching
is still generally accepted within thе scientific community and is, for that reason,
admissible under the
Frye-Reed
standard for evaluating the introduction of expert
testimony.
See Fleming
,
In
Fleming
we recognized that comparative microscopic matching or toolmark
identification involves subjective judgments by the examiner.
Id.
at 104 (citing
United
States v. Monteiro
,
*13
If comparative microscopic matching is generally accepted within the scientific
community even in 2016, it is inconceivable that the assorted criticisms, assembled by
Patterson, would have resulted in a different outcome had he been able to present them at
his initial trial in 1993.
Compare Ward v. State
,
Patterson counters that, in light of his criticisms of comparative microscopic
matching, a court would not have permitted Special Agent Williamson to express his
opinions with absolute certainty, as he did at the 1993 trial. Yet, as the circuit court
recognized in denying Patterson’s petition for a writ of actual innocence, the agent would
still have been permitted to testify, to a reasonable degree of certainty within his field of
expertise, that the bullet that was found in the victim’s body was shot out of the gun that
Patterson attemрted to discard just before his arrest in the District of Columbia. Hence,
had the jury considered the “newly-discovered” evidence concerning toolmark
identification, it might have assigned less weight to the agent’s testimony, but most
probably would not have discounted his testimony in its entirety.
Compare McGhie II
,
question.
Fleming
,
___ Md. at ___,
In our view, the court was not “well removed from any center mark imagined by
the reviewing court and beyond the fringe of what the court deems minimally acceptable”
(
McGhie I
,
In
McGhie
the petitioner came forward with newly-discovered evidence that the
State’s ballistics expert had lied about his qualifications.
See McGhie I
, 224 Md. App. at
293. The hearing judge nonetheless denied the petition, reasoning that, even without the
ballistics evidence, there was “‘ample testimony” from other witnessеs that directly
implicated the petitioner.
Id.
at 304 (quoting the circuit court). Both this Court and the
Court of Appeals concluded that the circuit court did not abuse its discretion in
concluding that the petitioner had not met his burden of showing that the newly-
discovered evidence would have created a substantial or significant possibility of a
different result.
See McGhie II
, ___ Md. at ___,
JUDGMENT OF THE CIRCUIT COURT FOR ANNE ARUNDEL COUNTY AFFIRMED. COSTS ASSESSED TO APPELLANT.
[1] Patterson phrased his question as follows: “Did the circuit court err in denying appellant’s writ for actual innocence on the basis that the ballistics examiner’s unequivocal conclusion regarding the murder weapon was a harmless error?”
Notes
[2] Rule 4-331(c) authorizes the court to grant a new trial based on newly discovered evidence that could not have been discovered by due diligence in time to move for a new trial within 10 days after the verdict. Such a motion must be filed “within one year after the later of (A) the date the court imposed sentence or (B) the date the court received a mandate issued by the final appellate court to consider a dirеct appeal from the judgment or a belated appeal permitted as post conviction relief[.]” Md. Rule 4-331(c)(1).
[3] In
Yonga v. State
,
[4] The cited cases are not overwhelmingly helpful to Patterson. In
Willock
, 696 F.
Supp. 2d at 571, Judge Paul Grimm found that the “theory of firearms-related toolmark
identification” was “generally accepted within the field of toolmark examiners.” In
Otero
,
[5] Although scientific studies unquestionably can qualify as newly-discovered
evidence (
Ward v. State
,
[6] Firearms toolmark identification, which is “the practice of investigating whether
a bullet, cartridge case or other ammunition component or fragmеnt can be traced to a
particular suspect weapon” (
Fleming
,
[7] That conclusion was in the nature of a demi-holding: we had previously held that any error in admitting the testimony would have been harmless beyond a reasonable doubt because of the abundance of evidence that Fleming had fired the weapon in