Name Recognition

I opened the web page of the Maryland Court of Appeals and found a recent decision of the Court of Special Appeals authored by Judge Ripken.

Nicholas Jabbar Williams (“Williams”) appeals his convictions of second-degree murder, unlawful possession of a firearm by a person under twenty-one, and transporting a handgun in a vehicle. Following a jury trial in the Circuit Court for Charles County, Williams was sentenced to an aggregate of forty-eight years of incarceration with all but twenty years suspended.

Williams argues that his convictions should be vacated without retrial because the jury verdicts are legally inconsistent and the evidence was legally insufficient to support his convictions. Williams otherwise asserts that a new trial is necessary because of erroneously admitted testimony, including from the State’s firearms examiner and two investigators, and improper jury deliberations. Williams alternatively seeks a limited remand in light of Rochkind v. Stevenson, 471 Md. 1 (2020), to determine the admissibility of the firearms examiner’s expert testimony.

For the reasons discussed below, we remand the case for the circuit court to determine whether it would reach the same decision to admit the firearms examiner’s testimony following the decision in Rochkind

Yes, perhaps I’m the last Marylander to know this but the January 2021 appointment to our second highest court Laura S. Kiessling Ripken is married to the Hall of Famer and baseball legend Cal Ripken, Jr. (Mike Frisch)