State v. Thomas: An Improper Extension of Involuntary Manslaughter to Combat the Opioid Epidemic

Daniel P. Mooney

In State v. Thomas, the Court of Appeals of Maryland considered whether Patrick Joseph Thomas’s conviction for gross negligence involuntary manslaughter should be upheld based on evidence that Thomas sold heroin to a buyer who later overdosed on the supply. The court upheld Thomas’s conviction, holding sufficient evidence existed to satisfy both the gross negligence and causation prongs of gross negligence involuntary manslaughter. In reaching this conclusion, however, the court improperly relied on another State’s precedent to reach its conclusion and failed to account for important facts that would have greatly affected its legal causation analysis. Further, the court did not consider Maryland’s assisted suicide statute, which renders the court’s decision illogical. Finally, the court went against the Maryland General Assembly’s clear decision to prohibit the State of Maryland from prosecuting narcotics distributors for manslaughter. Therefore, the court erred in its analysis of both prongs of gross negligence involuntary manslaughter, wrongfully concluding that Thomas exhibited gross negligence and was the legal cause of the buyer’s death.