Kenyatta M. Smith v. State of Maryland, No. 26, September Term, 2021. Opinion by Getty, C.J. PETITION FOR WRIT OF ERROR CORAM NOBIS — QUALIFICATIONS FOR RELIEF — DISCRETION OF THE CORAM NOBIS COURT The Court of Appeals held that a circuit court did not abuse its discretion in denying a petition for writ of error coram nobis where the petitioner satisfied the qualifications set forth in Skok v. State, 361 Md. 52 (2000), but did not establish that the matter presented circumstances compelling the extraordinary remedy of a writ of error coram nobis to achieve justice. Circuit Court for Baltimore County Case No. 03-K-02-002951 Argued: January 11, 2022 IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF MARYLAND No. 26 September Term, 2021 KENYATTA M. SMITH v. STATE OF MARYLAND *Getty, C.J. *McDonald, Watts, Hotten, Booth, Biran, Gould, JJ. Opinion by Getty, C.J. Filed: August 15, 2022 *Getty, C.J., and McDonald, J., now Senior Judges, participated in the hearing and Pursuant to Maryland Uniform Electronic Legal conference of this case while active members of Materials Act (§§ 10-1601 et seq. of the State Government Article) this document is authentic. this Court; after being recalled pursuant to 2022-08-15 13:15-04:00 Maryland Constitution, Article IV, Section 3A, they also participated in the decision and adoption of this opinion. Suzanne C. Johnson, Clerk The case before us involves a petition for the extraordinary remedy of a writ of error coram nobis, which overturns a person’s prior criminal convictions. Petitioner Kenyatta M. Smith (“Ms. Smith”) has twenty-year old convictions for forgery and fraud/identity theft. Due to these felony convictions, Ms. Smith is not eligible to receive the license required to work as a mortgage loan originator under Maryland law. As such, Ms. Smith petitioned the Circuit Court of Baltimore County for a writ of error coram nobis, which the circuit court ultimately denied. The circumstances of that denial led to the present appeal. Accordingly, this Court is asked to resolve whether the circuit court abused its discretion in denying Ms. Smith’s petition for writ of error coram nobis. For the reasons explained in detail below, considering the legislative purpose of the Maryland mortgage loan originator licensing statute and the fact that granting Ms. Smith’s petition for writ of error coram nobis would effectively circumvent a federal mandate on mortgage loan originator licensing requirements, we answer that question in the negative and affirm the judgment of the Court of Special Appeals. BACKGROUND A. The Underlying Convictions On June 3, 2002, the District Court for Baltimore County convicted Ms. Smith of one count of forgery and two counts of fraud/identity theft. Ms. Smith subsequently appealed her convictions to the Circuit Court for Baltimore County, where she then entered a guilty plea to all counts. The underlying circumstances that led to these convictions involved Ms. Smith using, without authorization, her former employer’s personal identifying information, including the employer’s name, tax identification number, and social security number, to obtain a commercial loan for $40,000.00. Ms. Smith then used checks bearing her …
Original document
Source: All recent Immigration Decisions In All the U.S. Courts of Appeals