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State v. Banks

SUPERIOR COURT OF THE STATE OF DELAWARE IN AND FOR KENT COUNTY
Jun 17, 2015
ID No. 1303011652 (Del. Super. Ct. Jun. 17, 2015)

Opinion

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06-17-2015

STATE OF DELAWARE v. JAMAAR S. BANKS MICHAEL R. BETHARD HARRY W. BLENDT JOHN E. BRADLEY CHRISTOPHER D. BREWER a/k/a CHRISTOPHER JERNIGAN WARREN BROOKS ANTOINE L. BURGESS CARRIE A. BUTLER SHON CALDWELL LEMAR C. CAMPBELL SHAUN CARPENTER RICHARD S. CARTER ROBERTO CHERRICKS MARK S. COLEMAN MARVIS COLONA BRIAN CROSSMAN BRADLEY A. DAVIS MYKAL DEMPSTER MICHAEL D. DIX KURT S. DUPREE ABBYDALE N. FINNEY a/k/a ABBYDALE SEABROOKS WESLEY J. FISHER CHRISTOPHER T. FOOTE PATRICK R. FURBECK SEANNE M. GODWIN JEREMY GORDY JERRI GREEN QUAHEEM HALL JUSTIN HOLDERBAUM QUAYSHAUN JOHNSON SAVANNAH JOHNSON ANTOINE J. JONES ASHTON D. JORDAN DAVID KING DESTINY G. LABERGE KELLY LAWLOR DASHERE LEWIS DOMINICK LITTLE CHARLES L. LIVINGSTON CRYSTAL LYSINGER MARK MARTIN NICK MARTINEZ DWAYNE N. MATTHEWS MICHAEL D. MESSICK JEROME A. MILLER RODNEY L. MILLER JAMES MOSES ELLIOTT OWENS KYE PABON EDWARD J. POTTS DEVRON POWELL STEPHONE POWELL CORY PRICE DAVID A. RANSHAW MICHAEL A. RATLEDGE ELWOOD J. ROSS EDWIN A. SANTIAGO TYRONE N. SAYLES ADAM SCOTT ALPHONSO SIMMONS SAMUEL SMITH KINON D. TEAT ANTHONY TROWER JAQUITA P. TURNAGE TAQUION TURNER ALLEN WILLIAMS ASHMERE WRIGHT DEMETRIUS M. WRIGHT


ORDER

Upon consideration of the captioned cases' Motion for Reargument, the State's opposition and the record in this case, it appears to the Court that: 1. On April 20, 2015, the Court entered judgment against the captioned cases, denying their individual Motion(s) for Postconviction Relief. The captioned cases timely filed this motion thereafter. 2. A motion for reargument seeks reconsideration of findings of fact, conclusions of law, or judgments of law. A motion for reargument will be denied unless the moving party has demonstrated that the Court has "overlooked a controlling precedent or legal principles, or the Court has misapprehended the law or facts such as would have changed the outcome of the underlying decision." Specifically, "[a] motion for reargument should not be used merely to rehash the arguments already decided by the Court, nor will the Court consider new arguments that the movant could have previously raised." 3. With the exception of the argument that the Court reconsider its decision in the interest of justice in light of newly discovered evidence, the issues raised in the captioned cases' Motion for Reargument were considered by the Court in making its original decision. Like the recent decision in Carrero v. State, there is no evidence that the drugs in these cases were compromised. Similar to Carrero and Brown, in each of these cases, a knowing, intelligent and voluntary guilty plea waived any right to test the chain of custody of the drug evidence. 4. As to the captioned cases' newly discovered evidence argument, the alleged wrongdoing is far less egregious than the alleged conduct of the original bad actors-which this Court's April 20, 2015 Order has already explained has no bearing on the binding effect of the captioned cases' knowing and voluntary guilty pleas. Similar to the conduct of the original bad actors, the newly discovered bad acts do not warrant a finding of actual or presumptive involuntariness of the captioned cases' guilty pleas. Unless, of course, there is evidence of a different factual scenario like the one suggested in Brown v. State,

Defense counsel chose 68 out of the117 originally subject to this Order to seek reargument.

Hessler, Inc. v. Farrell, 260 A.2d 701, 702 (Del. 1969).

First Bank of Delaware, Inc. v. Fidelity and Deposit Co. of Maryland, 2013 WL 6407603 at *1 (Del. Super. Dec. 4, 2013).

Id.

Carrero v. State, 2015 WL 3367940 (Del. May 21, 2015).

Id.

Brown v. State, 108 A.3d 1201 (Del. 2015).

The captioned cases point to a chemist at the Division of Forensic Science who has worked on numerous cases at the OCME, has- since October 2014- "received three corrective action reports due to missing evidence, mishandling of evidence and discrepancies in reported evidence."

where a defendant entered a reluctant, but fully informed, no contest or guilty plea to lesser charges with no prison sentence to avoid the risk of a lengthy prison sentence on more serious charges, while proclaiming his factual innocence and expressing incredulity that the substance he claimed was legal had tested to be illegal narcotics, a later revelation that evidence planting had occurred in the relevant police department
and that the defendant had been one of the victims of that misconduct,...
The captioned cases' newly discovered evidence fails to put forth any such evidence. Accordingly, this Court's original Order controls. 5. Since the captioned cases' have not met the standard for granting a motion for reargument, the motion is DENIED.

Brown, 108 A.3d at 1202. --------

/s/ William L. Witham, Jr.

Hon. William L. Witham, Jr.

Resident Judge
Dated: June 17, 2015 WLW/dmh
oc: Prothonotary
cc: Elizabeth R. McFarlan, Esquire

Kathleen M. Jennings, Esquire

Stephen R. Welch, Jr., Esquire

J. Brendan O'Neill, Esquire

Elliot Margules, Esquire

Nicole M. Walker, Esquire

William T. Deely, Esquire


Summaries of

State v. Banks

SUPERIOR COURT OF THE STATE OF DELAWARE IN AND FOR KENT COUNTY
Jun 17, 2015
ID No. 1303011652 (Del. Super. Ct. Jun. 17, 2015)
Case details for

State v. Banks

Case Details

Full title:STATE OF DELAWARE v. JAMAAR S. BANKS MICHAEL R. BETHARD HARRY W. BLENDT…

Court:SUPERIOR COURT OF THE STATE OF DELAWARE IN AND FOR KENT COUNTY

Date published: Jun 17, 2015

Citations

ID No. 1303011652 (Del. Super. Ct. Jun. 17, 2015)

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