I have a criminal charge that was put on a stet docket. My question is does it show on a background check.

The charge entered stats probably wouldn't show on a background check, unless you took steps to expunge it. Information about expungement is available on the forms tab for District Court at mdcourts.gov.

It will depend on the background check. A record of the incident is in the court database. You can see the case on the Maryland Judiciary Case Search website. You may be eligible for expungement of the matter after 3 years from the entry of stet. You may also ask the court to re-open the case for any reason within one year of the entry of the stet if you are adamant that you do not want this matter to be on a public record of any kind. I suggest that you consult with an experienced criminal defense attorney for advice prior to determining how to proceed

If I were you, I would assume that it will show up. It will show as a "stet", however, which means it was not prosecuted, but remains on the inactive docket. You remain innocent of the charge. Typically, a case on the stet docket gets there as the result of an agreement between the prosecutor and the defendant, such as in exchange for the defendant performing some community service or other program, although sometimes it is done because the prosecutor decides the evidence may be weak, but not so weak that they would dismiss it outright. If there were conditions which you were to meet as part of any deal for the stet disposition, and if you have met those conditions, then you might be able to get the State's cooperation in dismissing the case from the stet docket so you can immediately expunge it. Alternatively, if three years has passed since the case was placed on the stet docket, then you have the right to file a petition to expunge right now without it being dismissed. Only after expungement can you be sure that the offense will not appear on a background check.

It might show up, even though it's not a conviction. A big part of this depends on whether you were fingerprinted. If you weren't fingerprinted, FBI may never have gotten the record to begin with. And an FBI NCIC check is usually what a "background check" consists of. You may want to consider getting a lawyer who might be able to get the stet changed to an immediate dismissal and then you can expunge immediately with the State and then notify FBI to remove their records. I've even had cases on post-conviction go from a felony conviction, to a stet, and then a dismissal because of my skilled work in post-conviction law. I'd be happy to look at it for you.