Photos and videos of criminal acts can be very powerful and persuasive to a jury and can form the foundation for a conviction. At the same time, Maryland criminal law recognizes that photos and video can ALSO be very prejudicial to a defendant’s chances of gaining an acquittal. A jury’s passions may be so inflamed that they convict based on what they saw rather than the evidence that THIS defendant committed the gruesome crime. Because of this prejudicial impact, in some cases, photos and videos CAN be excluded from use at trial even if those photos and videos are evidence related to the crime.

This is one reason that top-rated Maryland criminal defense lawyers will always seek to exclude the use of photos and video at a criminal trial. The effort may not succeed, but the effort must be made. If you have been arrested and charged with a crime, you need experienced and dedicated Maryland criminal defense lawyers. Contact us here at the Law Office of Robert Castro. Use our contact page or call us at (301) 870-1200. We are available around the clock, 24/7. We have offices in Waldorf, Maryland.

A good example of an effort to exclude video evidence comes from the case of Warrick v. State, Case No. 1305, September Term, 2024 (Appellate Court of Maryland, 2025). That case involved a murder trial held in the Circuit Court for Charles County. The defendant, Deanthony Warrick, was accused of stabbing Jasmine Hicks about 14 or 15 times in the front yard of a house on Bryan’s Road, Charles County, Maryland. The killing was captured on a surveillance camera mounted over the garage of a house directly across the street from the house where Hicks was stabbed. The camera also captured the audio and, on the tape, Warrick could be seen stabbing Hicks while accusing her of taking his property. The first five to 10 minutes of the tape show the stabbing, and an additional hour or so of the tape shows Hicks dying of her wounds, while on the audio, she can be heard moaning and asking for help.

At the trial, the Maryland prosecuting attorneys sought to show the jury the entire video, lasting about 90 minutes. Warrick’s criminal defense attorneys objected and argued that only the portion of the video showing the attack should be shown to the jury. That portion, obviously, was relevant to whether Warrick committed the murder. However, the remainder — everything that followed after Warrick drove away from the house — was too prejudicial, creating “a very real risk of a conviction based upon strong emotion rather than the presence or absence of evidence.”

In the end, Warrick’s attorney was not successful. The judge allowed the jury to see the full video and, based on that and other evidence, Warrick was convicted. The judge’s decision was upheld on appeal.

However, as noted, it was a necessary effort by Warrick’s attorney. When a Maryland criminal court judge considers allowing a jury to see photos or video evidence, the court is required by Maryland law to engage in a two-part test. First, the judge must decide if the evidence is relevant at all. That is, the judge must decide if the photos or video are helpful in proving some aspect of the case. Then, second, the judge must balance the value of a photo/video against any prejudicial effect that the photo/video might produce by virtue of the photo/video showing a grisly or gruesome scene/image. In the Warrick case, the argument was that showing an hour of Hicks dying, moaning, and calling for help was too upsetting for a jury and that they would convict based on the emotion created by Hicks’ death struggles. However, the judge asserted that showing the whole video helped to prove Warrick’s intent and malice, to show that no one else killed Hicks, and to disprove Warrick’s claim that he tried to help Hicks after the stabbings.

Contact Waldorf, Maryland Criminal Defense Lawyer Robert Castro Today

This article has been provided by the Law Office of Robert Castro. For more information or questions, contact our office to speak to an experienced Maryland criminal defense lawyer at (301) 870-1200. We are Waldorf, MD, Criminal Defense lawyers. Our address is 11701 Central Avenue, Suite 200, Waldorf, MD 20601.