Judge Overturns Rape Conviction

At trial, prosecutors asked Circuit Court Judge Michele D. Hotten to allow them to call the woman to the stand as a "demonstrative exhibit," according to the ruling. In doing so, prosecutors were seeking to convince the jury that the woman was a "mentally defective individual." Under Maryland law, having sex with a person who meets that legal standard constitutes second-degree rape.

The victim is deaf, and according to the testimony of her mother, has the cognitive skills of a 3- to 5-year-old.

Over the defense lawyer's objection, Hotten allowed the state to put the woman on the stand as an exhibit. She was asked her name, age, where she lived and whether it was sunny outside. Prosecutors didn't ask her about Dyer or the pregnancy.

Defense lawyer Ross D. Hecht argued that his client's constitutional right to confront witnesses in court had been violated and asked the judge to declare a mistrial. The judge turned down the request.

Mercer said the state could have attempted to convince the jury that the woman was "mentally defective" through the testimony of experts who had evaluated her. The state called no such experts.

The case touches on a contentious legal and ethical issue: to what extent should the government regulate a mentally disabled person's ability to have intimacy and sex.

Dyer didn't take the stand and did not acknowledge having sex with the woman. If the defense had been allowed to cross-examine her, Mercer said, the defense lawyer could have asked whether she had been educated on what constitutes appropriate and inappropriate contact and whether she could tell the difference.

If she said she had and could, the defense could have argued that the encounter did not constitute rape.

The ruling, filed Oct. 16, scrapped Dyer's 20-year sentence. Prosecutors may ask the state's highest court to review the case. Kathryn Grill Graeff, chief of the Maryland attorney general's criminal appeals division, said the state has not decided whether to seek higher review. The Special Court of Appeals is the state's second-highest court. The state could ask the Court of Appeal to review the case, but the highest court is not required to do so.