The Maryland Supreme Court has issued an opinion limiting the testimony of firearms experts.
In Kobina Ebo Abruquah v. State of Maryland[1], the Circuit Court for Prince George’s County allowed a firearms examiner to testify that bullets recovered at a murder scene were fired from a gun Abruquah acknowledged was his.
In so doing, the circuit court abused its discretion, the Maryland Supreme Court contends.
Reports, studies, and other testimony presented at the trial do not support the idea that bullets can be identified as having come from a particular gun, the opinion says.
Instead, firearms identification experts can only testify as to whether recovered bullets may have been fired from a particular type of firearm.
The ruling impacts pending and previously closed cases in Maryland.
“We have a case that was getting ready for sentencing, and they postponed sentencing this week so that they could pull the transcript and see exactly what the expert said,” Baltimore County State’s Attorney Scott Shellenberger said to NBC Washington.
Shellenberger is also pulling transcripts for other cases to see what firearms experts said during trial.
Shellenberg said this ruling could potentially impact cases around the country.
Endnotes
[1] https://mdcourts.gov/data/opinions/coa/2023/10a22.pdf