Ryan v. State

Damone Blalock and Rodalius Ryan were convicted by a Fulton County jury of murdering Jamari Holmes and assaulting two other men after a drug deal turned into a shooting. A witness named Tyherra Hartfield, who had helped set up the meeting, refused to answer many questions at trial by invoking her right against self-incrimination, and the jury later asked the judge how to interpret that silence. On appeal, both men argued their trial lawyers failed them by not objecting to Hartfield's silence and the judge's instruction about it, by missing certain Instagram messages that might have helped their defense, by not objecting to the prosecutor's closing remarks, and, for Ryan, by not investigating an alibi involving his half-brother. The Supreme Court of Georgia found that the lawyers' choices were reasonable trial strategy or, where a mistake occurred, did not change the likely outcome given the strong evidence against the men. It affirmed both convictions.

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