Barnett v. Maryland

Our system of government was founded on the declaration that it was instituted to secure certain unalienable rights endowed upon all men. Certain of these rights, fundamental to the life, liberty and pursuit of happiness of the individual, are specifically guaranteed to the individual in amendments to the Constitution of the United States and the Declaration of Rights of the Constitution of Maryland. But the rights of the individual can be preserved only if the rights of all individuals are protected. There must be a fine balancing of the rights of the individual against the rights of society and no individual may do simply what he will. If "every man did that which was right in his own eyes," no man could fully enjoy the unalienable rights bestowed upon him. So certain acts of the individual are held to be crimes. Some, found by long experience to encroach on the rights of the individual and society are proscribed by the common law to which the inhabitants of Maryland are entitled, and others are proscribed by all the people through legislation enacted by their duly elected representatives. The commission of a crime is not prosecuted by the individual who directly suffers therefrom but by the State as the representative of all the people, for the rights of all individuals comprising the State are affected. A person accused of committing a crime comes to be tried therefor cloaked with the presumption of innocence and armed