DARRYL NICHOLS v. STATE OF MARYLAND
Court of Appeals of Maryland, Watts, November 7, 2018,
Sentencing – A defendant convicted of both a crime and conspiracy to commit that crime can’t be sentenced to more time for the conspiracy than the completed crime.

Facts:
In 2009, Nichols proposed a plan to a group of co-conspirators to kidnap, rob, and murder Eric Pendergrass.
After successfully accomplishing the kidnapping and obtaining “ransom” money, the group killed Pendergrass.
Nichols was charged and convicted of first-degree felony murder, false imprisonment, conspiracy to commit false imprisonment, extortion, and conspiracy to commit extortion.
Nichols was sentenced to an aggregate sentence of life imprisonment, with all but fifty years suspended, followed by five years of supervised probation.
On appeal, Nichols’ convictions for felony-murder and conspiracy to commit extortion were vacated, in part because extortion can’t be the “felony” underlying a felony-murder conviction.
In 2016, Nichols was re-sentenced to an aggregated sentence of eighty years of imprisonment.
Nichols appealed, arguing that his new sentence couldn’t be longer than his old sentence.

Held: