Court Of Appeals

Wilson K. Barnes Sr., a former judge of the Maryland Court of Appeals, died Tuesday of respiratory failure at the Lutherville home of a son. He was 90 and formerly lived in Roland Park.In 1964, Gov. J. Millard Tawes appointed Mr. Barnes, then a judge of the old Supreme Bench of Baltimore, to the Court of Appeals.Judge Barnes resigned in protest in 1974 after Gov. Marvin Mandel appointed John C. Eldridge, his chief legislative aide, to the court, a move that Judge Barnes called "a political appointment of a real crony."

ANNAPOLIS -- The Court of Special Appeals upheld yesterday Maryland's drug kingpin law, which sets stiff mandatory prison terms for organizers of large drug distribution rings.Rejecting arguments that the law is too vague and broad, the state's intermediate appellate court affirmed the conviction of Ricky R. Williams, a New York drug dealer snared in March 1990 during a state police sting in Salisbury.Williams' appeal was the first challenge to the 1989 statute. But the final word on the law likely will come from the Court of Appeals.

State workers cannot be denied promotions simply because the government lacks the money to pay them, the state's highest court ruled yesterday.Instead, government agencies must reclassify deserving employees and go through the state budget process if they need more money to pay them. Citing a state fiscal crisis and hiring freeze is no reason to freeze promotions, the judges wrote in upholding a lower court ruling.Though the decision is limited to three employees of the comptroller, it puts the state on notice that it has to follow its own regulations in dealing with its workers, said Janet M. Anderson, spokeswoman for the Maryland Classified Employees Association, which represents 13,000 workers.

The state's highest court further limited police drug searches yesterday, ruling that police cannot search passengers for drugs solely because a police dog detects a drug scent in a car. The 5-2 ruling on an issue previously untouched by the Court of Appeals draws a sharp distinction between a vehicle and its driver or owner, and the passengers. It says that a link must exist between suspected drugs and passengers before an officer can frisk the passengers. "A passenger in an automobile is generally not perceived to have the kind of control over the contents of the vehicle as does a driver," Judge Dale R. Cathell wrote for the majority of the Court of Appeals in a case stemming from a 1999 drug arrest in Annapolis.

In the next four months, Gov. Parris N. Glendening will make one of his most critical State House decisions -- one that will give new leadership to Maryland's courts for the first time in a generation and will require deft political juggling.Before October, Glendening must name a successor to Judge Robert C. Murphy, who at 69 faces mandatory retirement after 24 years as chief judge of Maryland's highest court.Already, the competition to succeed Murphy as head of the Court of Appeals is under way. Judges who want the post -- or their champions -- are waging quiet but determined lobbying campaigns.

The seven judges of the Maryland Court of Appeals have approved a proposed rule under which all state judges will give up either five days of vacation or a comparable amount of their pay to help Maryland's ailing budget."

The state's highest court yesterday upheld the conviction of a five-time rapist sentenced to two life terms in December 1992 for breaking into an Ellicott City home and raping a woman.Michael Devon Armstead, 36, of Brooklyn Park, had no right to a pre-trial hearing to question the reliability of DNA evidence linking him to the 1991 rape, the Court of Appeals ruled.Armstead's lawyers argued that probability calculations used by prosecutors to match his DNA to that taken from the victim were outdated and unreliable.

In a sweeping ruling on potential juror bias, the state's highest court said yesterday that any defendant is entitled to ask potential jurors if they harbor racial, ethnic or cultural biases that would make them unsuitable for his trial.The details of the case need not involve those prejudices for the defendant to ask would-be jurors about their attitudes, because the goal of the questioning is to flush out potential jurors who may be influenced by their biases, the Court of Appeals said.

The state's highest court ruled yesterday that a Glen Arm man's snake-breeding business violates Baltimore County zoning regulations, ending a four-year legal battle between the breeder and his neighbors. In a 44-page opinion, the Maryland Court of Appeals sided with the county Board of Appeals, which found in 1998 that Peter Kahl Reptiles Inc. "does not satisfy the definition of `commercial agriculture,' because [Kahl] was not involved in the use of the land or in animal husbandry." The business is in an agricultural zone called RC4. A permit granted to Kahl's business by the county in 1997 did not comply with zoning regulations, the court wrote.

The Court of Appeals disbarred former Baltimore school board President Meldon S. Hollis Jr. yesterday for misappropriating about $90,000 from a client and lying about what happened to the money.Maryland's highest court took the action after the state Attorney Grievance Commission filed a petition last year to take away Hollis' law license.In a 17-page ruling, the court called the evidence "clear and convincing."No compelling extenuating circumstances were found to exist," the unanimous court held.