--- title: Adams v. State collection: opinions id: S20G1409 cite_as: Adams v. State, 311 Ga. 625 (2021) canonical_url: https://georgiacommons.org/opinions/S20G1409 md_url: https://georgiacommons.org/opinions/S20G1409.md text_url: https://georgiacommons.org/opinions/S20G1409/text source_url: https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/10367782/adams-v-state/ date: 2021-06-01 status: published corpus_version: opinions-2026-09-14 license: Public record of the Supreme Court of Georgia, via CourtListener and the court's own website; see about.md publisher: Georgia Commons, an independent project of Georgia Civic Data. Not the State of Georgia. Not legal advice. up: https://georgiacommons.org/opinions/2021.md previous: https://georgiacommons.org/opinions/S21A0295.md next: https://georgiacommons.org/opinions/S20G0931.md index: https://georgiacommons.org/opinions/index.md omitted: opinion extras omitted_chars: 986 omitted_url: https://georgiacommons.org/opinions/S20G1409.md?full=1 docket: S20G1409 citation: 311 Ga. 625 court: Supreme Court of Georgia case_type: other disposition: Writ of certiorari vacated; petition for certiorari denied vote: All the Justices concur word_count: 144 date_filed_source: courtlistener record_source: courtlistener also_known_as: - CourtListener cluster 4887846 legal_areas: - civil procedure - appellate procedure upstream_id: "10367782" summaries_model: claude-sonnet-5 --- # Adams v. State Supreme Court of Georgia, docket S20G1409, filed 2021-06-01, 311 Ga. 625. ## Opinion 311 Ga. 625 FINAL COPY S20G1409. ADAMS v. THE STATE. ORDER OF THE COURT. After careful consideration of the full record and the briefs of the parties and of the amici curiae, the Court has determined that the writ of certiorari issued in Case No. S20C1409 was improvidently granted. Accordingly, the writ is vacated, and the petition for certiorari in Case No. S20G1409 is denied. All the Justices concur. Ordered June 1, 2021. Certiorari to the Court of Appeals of Georgia — 355 Ga. App. XXIV. Marsha W. Mignott, for appellant. Tasha M. Mosley, District Attorney, Charles A. Brooks, Sr., Solicitor-General, Audrey A. Lewis, Stephanie S. Dufford, Assistant Solicitors-General, for appellee. Greg A. Willis; Hunter A. Rodgers; Kimberly A. Dymecki, amici curiae for appellant. Omeeka P. Loggins, Solicitor-General; Deborah M. Tatum, Assistant Solicitor-General; Robert W. Smith, Jr.; Jason R. Samuels, amici curiae for appellee. ## Summaries written by Georgia Commons The following was written by claude-sonnet-5 from the opinion above and is not part of the court's opinion. Quote the opinion, not the summary. The Supreme Court of Georgia dismissed a case it had earlier agreed to review, deciding after full briefing that it should not have taken up the appeal in the first place. ### Plain-language summary A person identified as Adams asked the Supreme Court of Georgia to review a decision of the Court of Appeals of Georgia in a case against the State. The Supreme Court initially granted certiorari, meaning it agreed to hear the case, and the parties and several outside groups (amici curiae) filed briefs on both sides. After reviewing the full record and those briefs, the court concluded that it had made a mistake in agreeing to take the case, a decision courts describe as the writ of certiorari being improvidently granted. Rather than ruling on the underlying legal question, the court vacated its earlier order accepting the case and denied the petition for certiorari, leaving the Court of Appeals of Georgia's decision as the final word. ### Holding, as summarized The court held only that its earlier grant of certiorari was improvidently made, meaning it should not have agreed to hear the case, so it vacated that grant and denied the petition without deciding the underlying legal issue. ### Disposition Writ of certiorari vacated; petition for certiorari denied. All the Justices concur. ### Why it matters For Adams and the State, this means the Court of Appeals of Georgia's ruling stands unchanged, since the Supreme Court never reached the merits. It also signals to lawyers that even after certiorari is granted, the court can still decline to decide a case. > The summarized reasoning, checked quotes, suggested questions, and the CourtListener opinion records (986 characters) are at https://georgiacommons.org/opinions/S20G1409.md?full=1