Washington v. State

Brantley Washington and two co-defendants were convicted in the shooting death of Seine Yale Jackson, who was found bound, gagged, and shot in a rental unit on Glen Iris Drive in Fulton County. Evidence at trial included hotel surveillance video from South Carolina, cell phone location data, and a traffic stop dashcam video showing three men traveling toward Atlanta the night of the murder. On appeal, Washington argued the trial court should not have allowed the surveillance videos and detective testimony describing them into evidence, and that his trial lawyer was ineffective for not objecting. The Supreme Court of Georgia found that Washington's own defense strategy relied on the surveillance video to show he stayed at the hotel rather than traveling to the murder scene, so his lawyer's decision not to object was a reasonable strategic choice, not a mistake. The court also found the detectives never actually identified Washington in the dashcam video, so that claim failed too. The court affirmed the conviction.

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