Robinson v. State

David Robinson was convicted of malice murder and other crimes after a shooting death at a strip club in Atlanta in 2017. At trial, a witness who had been limited by a pretrial ruling to testifying only about hearing gunshots instead testified that a friend of the victim told him the victim had been shot. Robinson objected on hearsay grounds and moved for a mistrial, but the trial judge denied the motion and instead told the jury to disregard the testimony. On appeal to the Supreme Court of Georgia, Robinson argued the trial court should have granted a mistrial because, in his words, the court could not 'unring the bell.' The court explained that under Georgia law, once a trial court denies a mistrial motion but gives a curative instruction, a defendant must renew the mistrial motion after the instruction to preserve the issue for appeal. Because Robinson never renewed his motion, the court held the claim was not preserved and affirmed his conviction.

A defendant who moves for a mistrial and receives a curative instruction instead of a mistrial must renew the motion after the instruction is given to preserve the issue for appellate review; because Robinson never renewed his motion, his mistrial claim was not preserved.

The decision reinforces a strict procedural rule for Georgia trial lawyers: after a judge denies a mistrial motion but gives a curative instruction, the defense must renew the motion or lose the right to challenge that ruling on appeal, regardless of the trial's underlying facts.

Affirmed

1. Georgia law requires a defendant seeking appellate review of a denied mistrial motion to first move for a mistrial at the earliest opportunity to raise the issue.
2. If the trial court denies the mistrial motion and gives no curative instruction, the claim is automatically preserved for appeal without further action by the defendant.
3. But if the trial court denies the motion and instead gives the jury a curative instruction telling them to disregard the improper testimony, the defendant must take an extra step: renew the mistrial motion after the instruction and obtain a definitive ruling on it.
4. Here, after the witness testified about a statement outside the scope of the pretrial ruling, Robinson moved for a mistrial, the trial court denied it, and the court then instructed the jury to disregard the testimony.
5. Although Robinson objected that the court could not 'unring the bell,' he never renewed his motion for mistrial after the curative instruction was given, so under the court's precedents the claim was waived and not preserved for review.

• murder conviction
• mistrial motion
• hearsay testimony
• preservation of error
• Atlanta strip club shooting