Convictions may be Merged for Sentencing Purposes
Two convictions merge for sentencing purposes if
(1) they are based on the same act or acts and
(2) one offense is a lesser-included offense of the other under the required evidence test.
Under Nicolas v. State, 426 Md. 385, 44 A.3d 306 (2012), a court is to resolve factual ambiguities in favor of the defendant. When the record was ambiguous as to whether the jury’s guilty verdict on a false imprisonment court was based on the same act or acts as its guilty verdict on a first degree rape count, the defendant’s conviction for false imprisonment should have been merged into the conviction for first degree rape.
An example of this would be merging the charge of false imprisonment into a conviction of rape as done in Hawkins v. State, 34 Md. App. 82, 92, 366 A.2d 421 (1976). In that case, Defendant attacked his victim, forced her to the ground and raped her. The victim was held for only the time it took to commit the crime. Therefore, facts such as the encounter leading to the attack were essential to proving the rape charge. On that basis the court determined that the false imprisonment charge should be merged into the rape conviction.
But it is important to note that had victim being held for a period of time before or after the rape occurred then that fact may preclude merger and allow sentencing for each charge.
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