Georgia CommonsCourt opinions
Georgia Supreme Court decisions with plain-language summaries. Browse by year and case type, or search by case name.
Twum-Baah v. State
The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld the dismissal of a man's pretrial habeas petition, ruling that his arguments about a judge's refusal to recuse did not address the actual reason his case was dismissed.
Williams v. State
The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld a Gwinnett County man's murder conviction, rejecting his claims that self-defense should have shielded him, that his lawyer botched a phone investigation, and that a text log was wrongly admitted.
The LAMAR COMPANY, LLC v. NORTH FULTON OUTDOOR, LLC
The Supreme Court of Georgia ruled that the Court of Appeals wrongly dismissed Lamar Company's billboard appeal without first deciding whether the superior court's zoning ruling counted as an appealable interlocutory injunction.
Mosley v. State
The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld a Georgia State Prison inmate's felony murder conviction for killing his cellmate, rejecting claims about the evidence, jury instructions, a judge's reversal of a new trial order, and a delayed trial transcript.
Owens v. State
The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld Celeste Alexandria Owens's murder and child cruelty convictions in the death of her girlfriend's eight-year-old daughter, ruling that video evidence, medical findings, and a surviving child's testimony were enough to support the jury's verdict.
RUCKER v. THE STATE (Two Cases)
The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld the murder and robbery convictions of Tony Rucker and Aaron Simmons, rejecting challenges to the sufficiency of evidence, the admission of hearsay statements, and the denial of a motion to separate the co-defendants' trials.
Smith v. State
The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld a Richmond County man's murder conviction, rejecting his claims that the evidence was too weak and that gruesome body camera footage of CPR should have been kept from the jury.
State v. Cullins
The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld a DeKalb County judge's decision that double jeopardy bars the State from retrying Deanthony Cullins for murder, finding the prosecutor deliberately caused the mistrial.
State v. Ovalle
The Supreme Court of Georgia sent a Bartow County drug case back to the trial court after ruling the judge used the wrong legal test in granting Erik Ovalle a new trial on a felony murder charge tied to a fatal fentanyl sale.
State v. Postell
The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld a Bulloch County judge's decision to grant a new trial to a man convicted of murdering his nephew, ruling that evidence of the nephew's violent character and past violent acts should have been allowed at trial.
WARNER v. ESPITIA
The Supreme Court of Georgia ruled that the state's anti-racketeering law can apply to disputes between divorced parents, rejecting the Court of Appeals' view that 'garden-variety domestic disputes' are automatically excluded.
Walker v. State
The Supreme Court of Georgia ruled that an aggravated stalking indictment must specifically state that the contact happened somewhere other than the defendant's own residence, and threw out a Gwinnett-area man's conviction because his indictment left that out.
Banks v. State
The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld the murder and burglary convictions of Jonathan Banks, one of three men found guilty in a Fulton County home invasion that ended in the fatal shooting of Pamela Williams.
Battle v. State
The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld Casey Battle's felony murder convictions from a Fulton County recording studio robbery, rejecting claims that his lawyer should have sought certain defense instructions and that a mistrial was wrongly denied.
Booze v. State
The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld a Cobb County man's rape conviction, ruling that Georgia's rape law was not too vague to apply to him and that evidence of the victim's extreme intoxication was enough to support the verdict.
Buchalla v. State
The Supreme Court of Georgia ruled that a man convicted of aggravated assault in 2013 can still be prosecuted for murder after his victim died in 2015, because the murder charge did not exist at the time of his earlier conviction.
CAYAMCELA v. ADVOCACY TRUST, LLC (Two Cases)
The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld a $42 million wrongful death verdict against a doctor and a medical staffing agency in the death of Holly Baumstark, rejecting challenges to evidence rulings, jury instructions, and attorney fees, and ruled the state's damages cap could not limit the award.
CLARK v. LEIGH (And Vice Versa)
The Supreme Court of Georgia ruled that a Bibb County jury's wrongful death and pain-and-suffering award for April Clark cannot be cut down by Georgia's $350,000 cap on noneconomic medical malpractice damages, because that cap cannot be separated from damages the jury trial right protects. The court sent the case back for further proceedings.
Calhoun v. State
The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld James Calhoun's malice murder conviction for the shooting of Pamela Williams, rejecting his claims about trial evidence, jury procedures, and his lawyer's performance, largely because he failed to back up many of his arguments.
Denson v. State
The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld a Fulton County man's felony murder conviction for shooting a friend through a locked front door, rejecting claims of ineffective counsel and sentencing error.