Terms Used In Maryland Code, COURTS AND JUDICIAL PROCEEDINGS 10-919

  • Appeal: A request made after a trial, asking another court (usually the court of appeals) to decide whether the trial was conducted properly. To make such a request is "to appeal" or "to take an appeal." One who appeals is called the appellant.
  • Common law: The legal system that originated in England and is now in use in the United States. It is based on judicial decisions rather than legislative action.
  • Conviction: A judgement of guilt against a criminal defendant.
  • Decedent: A deceased person.
  • Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
(a) After all right to appeal has been exhausted, a judgment of conviction establishing criminal accountability for the felonious and intentional killing of a decedent:

(1) Is admissible in a civil proceeding in which the common law Slayer’s Rule is raised as an issue; and

(2) Conclusively establishes that the convicted individual feloniously and intentionally killed the decedent.

(b) This section may not be construed to prohibit a trier of fact, in the absence of a criminal conviction, from determining by a preponderance of the evidence in a civil proceeding that a killing was felonious and intentional.