Hypnotically-induced exculpatory memory evidence offered through a defense witness was not admissible at trial because memories recalled through hypnosis are too unreliable.

Defendant Burral was charged with the murder of Jeffrey Fiddler. On the night of the murder, Fiddler, his brother Jimmy, Bobby Schell, Lisa Wallech, the defendant Burral and several other persons were partying at Schell's home. Sometime during the night, Jeffrey Fiddler was killed. His body was found in a ditch next to a nearby freeway.

Early in the police investigation, Lisa Wallech had told police about a fight between Jimmy Fiddler and Schell the night of the murder. They believed that she knew more. Thus, seven months after the murder Wallech participated in a hypnosis session conducted by a Maryland State Police Sergeant. During the hypnotic session Wallech recalled that Schell and Jeffrey (not Jimmy) Fiddler were fighting that night.

A report of the session was provided to Burral's defense. At trial, the defense theory was that Schell had killed Jeffrey Fiddler. In essence, the bad blood between the two extended later into the evening when Schell killed Fiddler.

The trial court refused to allow the jury to hear Wallech's hypnotically induced recollections. The court found that Wallech's recollections were so tied to hypnosis and the hypnotic process that the evidence was unreliable and not admissible. Burral was convicted of the murder.

He appealed, claiming that his Sixth Amendment right to use the power of the court to call witnesses on his own behalf was violated by the trial court's refusal to allow Wallech's hypnotically induced recollections. On review, the Maryland Supreme Court noted that hypnosis is subject to the Frye standards for the admissibility of a scientific technique. The Court had previously held hypnotically induced memory inadmissible in a 1983 case.

After conducting an exhaustive review of the literature, the Court concluded that hypnosis has yet to gain acceptance within the scientific community. The court reasoned that hypnosis is likely to produce false recollections in testimony, that even a withering cross-examination would be unable to expose.