---
title: Green v. State
collection: opinions
id: S25A1357
cite_as: Green v. State, S25A1357 (Ga. Oct. 15, 2025)
canonical_url: https://georgiacommons.org/opinions/S25A1357
md_url: https://georgiacommons.org/opinions/S25A1357.md
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source_url: https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/10704230/green-v-state/
date: 2025-10-15
status: published
corpus_version: opinions-2026-09-14
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docket: S25A1357
court: Supreme Court of Georgia
case_type: criminal appeal
authoring_justice: Warren
disposition: Affirmed
vote: All the Justices concur
word_count: 564
date_filed_source: courtlistener
record_source: courtlistener
legal_areas:
  - criminal law
  - constitutional law
upstream_id: "10704230"
summaries_model: claude-sonnet-5
---

# Green v. State

Supreme Court of Georgia, docket S25A1357, filed 2025-10-15.

## Opinion

NOTICE: This opinion is subject to modification resulting from motions for reconsideration under Supreme Court Rule 27, the Court’s reconsideration, and editorial revisions by the Reporter of Decisions. The version of the opinion published in the Advance Sheets for the Georgia Reports, designated as the “Final Copy,” will replace any prior version on the Court’s website and docket. A bound volume of the Georgia Reports will contain the final and official text of the opinion. In the Supreme Court of Georgia

Decided: October 15, 2025

S25A1357. GREEN v. THE STATE.

WARREN, Presiding Justice.

Appellant Eric Green was convicted of malice murder and other crimes in connection with the shooting death of Njeri Strickland.1 Green’s sole contention in this appeal is that his trial counsel provided constitutionally ineffective assistance by failing to object to certain testimony at trial. As explained more below, this claim is

1 The crimes occurred on November 3, 2021. In February 2022, a DeKalb County grand jury indicted Green for malice murder, two counts of felony murder, aggravated assault, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. At a trial from May 8 to 15, 2023, the jury found him guilty of all counts. The trial court sentenced him to serve life in prison for malice murder, 5 consecutive years for possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, and 10 consecutive years for possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. The remaining counts were vacated or merged. Green filed a timely motion for new trial, which he amended through new counsel in January 2025. After a hearing, the trial court denied the motion in March 2025. Green filed a timely notice of appeal directed to the Court of Appeals, which transferred the case to this Court. It was docketed to our August 2025 term and submitted for a decision on the briefs. not preserved for our review, so we affirm.

“Ineffectiveness claims must be raised and pursued at the earliest practicable moment, which for a claim of ineffective assistance of trial counsel is at the motion for new trial stage if the defendant is no longer represented by the attorney who represented him at trial.” Allen v. State, 317 Ga. 1, 12 (2023) (quotation marks omitted). Green did not raise a claim of ineffective assistance of trial counsel at the earliest practicable moment: that is, after he obtained new appellate counsel, who filed Green’s amended motion for new trial. Nor did Green raise an ineffectiveness claim at the hearing on the motion, and the trial court’s order denying the motion did not rule on such a claim. Consequently, Green forfeited his ineffectiveness claim. See id. at 12–13 (holding that the appellant forfeited his claim of ineffective assistance because he failed to raise the claim in his initial motion for new trial, in the amendments made thereto by appellate counsel, or during the hearing on the motion and the trial court did not rule on any such claim). See also, e.g., Watkins v. State, 320 Ga. 862, 881 (2025) (concluding that the appellant forfeited his ineffectiveness claim because he failed to raise it in his amended motions for new trial, even though he was no longer represented by trial counsel, and the trial court did not rule on such a claim).

Judgment affirmed. All the Justices concur.

## 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 upheld Eric Green's murder conviction, ruling that he could not raise a claim that his trial lawyer was ineffective because he never raised that claim in the trial court first.

### Plain-language summary

Eric Green was convicted by a DeKalb County jury of malice murder and related gun crimes in the 2021 shooting death of Njeri Strickland. He was sentenced to life in prison plus additional years for firearm offenses. After trial, Green got new lawyers who filed a motion for new trial, but that motion never argued that his original trial lawyer had done a constitutionally inadequate job.
On appeal to the Supreme Court of Georgia, Green's only argument was that his trial counsel had been ineffective for failing to object to certain testimony. But Georgia law requires defendants to raise ineffective assistance claims at the first real opportunity, once they have new lawyers who are not the trial attorney being criticized. Because Green never made that argument in his motion for new trial, at the hearing on that motion, or in the trial court's ruling, the Supreme Court of Georgia held he had forfeited the right to raise it now, and affirmed his conviction.

### Holding, as summarized

A defendant forfeits a claim that his trial counsel was constitutionally ineffective if he fails to raise that claim at the earliest practicable moment, meaning once represented by new counsel in the motion for new trial proceedings, including any amendments and the hearing itself.

### Disposition

Affirmed. All the Justices concur.

### Why it matters

The decision reinforces a strict timing rule for Georgia criminal defendants: claims that a trial lawyer performed poorly must be raised as soon as new counsel takes over, or they are lost for good. Defense attorneys handling motions for new trial must actively screen for and raise such claims early.

> The summarized reasoning, checked quotes, suggested questions, and the CourtListener opinion records (1,768 characters) are at https://georgiacommons.org/opinions/S25A1357.md?full=1