Georgia CommonsSupreme Court of Georgia
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Words find opinions whose text, case name, or summary carries them; a docket such as S23A0421 or a citation such as 317 Ga. 528 opens that opinion. Search matches the words of the opinion: ask in the words the court would use.
40 opinions for “your words”.
Rountree v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons: The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld a Houston County man's malice murder conviction, ruling he never properly objected to the absence of voluntary manslaughter and mutual combat jury instructions and that no such instructions were required anyway.
… The threatening and insulting words that Rountree testified were used by Sandhu, no matter how menacing or offensive they were to Rountree, were still only words, regardless of …
Taylor v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons: The Supreme Court of Georgia ruled that a man cannot be held guilty of 13 separate counts of contempt for cursing at a judge during one brief, continuous outburst, and sent the case back for a single contempt conviction.
… trial court found Taylor guilty of 13 instances of criminal contempt, one for each of the obscene words that he used during the outburst, and sentenced him to …
MCBRAYER v. SCARBROUGH
Summary by Georgia Commons: The Supreme Court of Georgia ruled that placing and restraining a man in a patrol car's back seat counts as 'use' of the vehicle, so a wrongful death suit against a sheriff can proceed despite sovereign immunity.
… In both statutes, the word “use” is primarily employed as a noun. As a noun, the meaning of the word “use” has been defined as “the act or …
Ford Motor Company v. Cosper
Summary by Georgia Commons: The Supreme Court of Georgia ruled that reckless conduct alone, separate from willful or wanton conduct, can excuse a product-liability negligence claim from Georgia's ten-year statute of repose, and defined what counts as reckless.
… The associated-words canon counsels that a word in a statute “should be understood in relation to the other words in the statute.” Kinslow v. State, 311 Ga …
The STATE v. SASS GROUP, LLC (Two Cases)
Summary by Georgia Commons: The Supreme Court of Georgia ruled that a lawsuit against the State seeking declaratory relief under a new constitutional waiver of sovereign immunity must be dismissed entirely if it also names another defendant, like a prosecutor sued individually.
… 627, 635 (4) (b) (774 SE2d 624) (2015) (“We similarly presume that the words used in the Constitution bear their ordinary meanings at the time those words were …
State v. LOPEZ-CARDONA
Summary by Georgia Commons: The Supreme Court of Georgia sent back a Gwinnett County judge's rulings suppressing two murder suspects' police statements, finding the judge's fact-findings were too thin to review whether the men understood and waived their Miranda rights.
… As we will explain below, however, a Spanish- speaking interpreter and translator testified that some of the Spanish words that the officer used in explaining the defendants’ rights …
Reynolds v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons: The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld a DeKalb County man's murder conviction, ruling that any limits placed on his insanity-defense expert's testimony were harmless because she testified to the same ideas anyway.
… But Reynolds contends that the words “motive” or “plan” or “concealing of evidence” are not inherently legal conclusions nor elements of the crimes charged. Accordingly, he argues, the …
Hudson v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons: The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld a Chatham County man's murder conviction, ruling that a heated verbal insult over his mother's death did not justify jury instructions on voluntary manslaughter or insanity, and that limiting cross-examination about a police officer's question about mental illness was harmless.
… 839, 843 (2) (778 SE2d 769) (2015), the court declined to give the charge, saying that “in this particular case, all we have is words. Words cannot result …
State v. Henry
Summary by Georgia Commons: The Supreme Court of Georgia ruled that a driver seeking an independent DUI test must speak clearly enough that a reasonable officer would understand the request, rejecting a looser standard used by the Court of Appeals.
… 220, 227-228 (III) (A) (134 SCt 870, 187 LE2d 729) (2014) (noting that, “unless otherwise defined, words will be interpreted as taking their ordinary, contemporary, common meaning …
SCOTT K. CAMP v. RYAN CHRISTOPHER WILLIAMS
Summary by Georgia Commons: The Supreme Court of Georgia ruled that a Douglas County election board wrongly let a substitute Democratic candidate onto the general election ballot for Chief Magistrate Judge because he never properly qualified to run.
… As explained below, the word “qualifications” is not as a semantic matter limited to the prerequisites for holding office. Moreover, the permission to challenge a candidate’s qualifications …
Kinslow v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons: The Supreme Court of Georgia reversed a Norcross IT worker's felony computer trespass conviction, ruling that copying and forwarding his boss's emails to his own account did not legally count as 'interfering' with data under the statute.
… In particular, we normally should “avoid ascribing to one word a meaning so broad that it is inconsistent with its accompanying words, thus giving unintended breadth to” an …
BURROUGHS v. STRENGTH OF NATURE GLOBAL, LLC (Two Cases)
Summary by Georgia Commons: The Supreme Court of Georgia ruled that Georgia's ten-year statute of repose for product liability claims applies separately to each individual sale of a product, not to a whole group of purchases treated together, reviving part of a hair-relaxer lawsuit.
… In other words, the role of the word “first” in this provision is to in- dicate which sale of a particular unit triggers the statute of repose in …
Johnson v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons: The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld a Bibb County man's murder conviction, ruling that the trial judge was right to refuse a voluntary manslaughter instruction because nothing in the confrontation amounted to legally sufficient provocation.
… Passard’s uninvited entrance upon his mother’s doorstep, refusal to leave, confrontational words, and physical pushing [that caused] Johnson to stumble.” However, no evidence supported a finding …
Allen v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons: The Supreme Court of Georgia reversed a man's murder conviction for beating his cousin to death, ruling the trial judge should have let the jury consider whether he acted from a sudden passion after discovering his fiancée's suspected affair.
… Curiously, despite stating that provocation by words alone was still not sufficient provocation under the new statutory regime, Brooks then carved out the exception for when words disclose …
In THE INTEREST OF T.B., a Child
Summary by Georgia Commons: The Supreme Court of Georgia ruled that children accused of delinquency for acts that would be crimes if committed by an adult can raise an insanity or delusional-compulsion defense in juvenile court, reversing a lower court that had barred such defenses entirely.
… designated a crime.” In other words, we must determine whether the scope of the word “act” is broad enough to permit consideration not only of whether conduct satisfies …
Wilkerson v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons: The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld a Sumter County man's felony murder conviction, rejecting his self-defense claim, his request for a voluntary manslaughter instruction, and his objections to testimony about his time in jail before trial.
… Moreover, the threatening words that witnesses testified were used by Greene “were still only words.” Rountree, 316 Ga. at 695. For the foregoing reasons, we conclude that Appellant …
State v. Islam
Summary by Georgia Commons: The Supreme Court of Georgia ruled that when a trial judge grants a motion to return property seized in a search, the property is automatically excluded from trial by law, even if the order never uses the word 'exclude.'
… 69, 75 (3) (809 SE2d 780) (2018) (“The word ‘shall’ is generally construed as a word of command. The import of the language is mandatory.” (citation and punctuation …
Fleureme v. City of Atlanta et al.
Summary by Georgia Commons: The Supreme Court of Georgia ruled that a person suing Atlanta over an injury can satisfy the legal notice requirement by mailing a claim addressed to the 'Office of the Mayor,' rather than to the mayor by name.
… To see why, consider the word “or” that comes after the “personally.” Under the City’s reading, that “or” cre- ates a disconnect between the first and second …
Bowman v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons: The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld Torry Bowman's murder conviction in a Fulton County bar shooting, rejecting his challenges to jury instructions and to how the trial court handled his stipulation about a prior felony conviction.
… The instruction that provocation by words alone is not a defense to murder was an accurate statement of the law. Bowman’s through 9. The jury found Bowman …
ROCKDALE COUNTY. v. U. S. ENTERPRISES, INC.; And Vice Versa
Summary by Georgia Commons: The Supreme Court of Georgia ruled that Rockdale County's zoning definition of a prohibited 'truck stop' was not unconstitutionally vague, reversing a superior court decision that had struck it down and letting a QuikTrip permit dispute continue.
… Finally, the UDO says that all words not otherwise defined in the UDO “are intended to have the commonly accepted definitions contained in a recent edition of the …
Anderson v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons: The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld a DeKalb County man's murder conviction, ruling his trial lawyer's failure to object to two jury instructions did not amount to ineffective assistance of counsel.
… During the charge conference, trial counsel stated that he had “agreed to let in” the State’s request for the pattern charge on words alone (2.10.42 …
Fuller v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons: The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld a Chatham County man's murder conviction, ruling that his trial lawyer's strategic choices about evidence and jury instructions did not amount to ineffective assistance.
… Provocation by words alon[e] will, in no case, justify such excitement or passion sufficient to free the accused from the crime of murder or to reduce the …
Edvalson v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons: The Supreme Court of Georgia ruled that a Gwinnett County man convicted on 11 separate counts of possessing child pornography images should have received only one conviction, since simultaneous possession of multiple images counts as a single crime under the statute.
… On certiorari, this Court reversed on the basis of well- established rules of statutory construction: “to construe the statute according to its terms, to give words their plain …
Metz v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons: The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld a YouTuber's conviction for loitering near a Paulding County treatment facility, ruling the loitering statute was clear enough to apply to his refusal to leave after crossing the guard line.
… 182, 184 (1) (891 SE2d 786) (2023) (“When looking for the commonly understood meaning of a word in statutory text, we generally look to dictionaries . . . from the time …
Premier Health Care Investments, LLC v. Uhs of Anchor, L.P
Summary by Georgia Commons: The Supreme Court of Georgia ruled that a state health agency exceeded its authority when it required a hospital to get a new permit before shifting existing beds into a psychiatric program, because state law does not list bed shuffling as something needing that approval.
… In other words, we concluded that the word “includes” was used in a “restrictive, limiting sense,” meaning that “no other elements or items,” beyond the specific phrases contained …
Adams v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons: 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.
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 …
Gonzalez v. Miller
Summary by Georgia Commons: The Supreme Court of Georgia ruled that the Open Records Act applies to district attorneys' offices and allowed a citizen's public records lawsuit against Athens-area District Attorney Deborah Gonzalez to move forward.
… describe specific types of governmental subunits.9 Applying the canon of noscitur a sociis10 the word “office” should be understood in relation to the other words listed in …
City of Madison v. Morgan County Hospital Authority
Summary by Georgia Commons: The Supreme Court of Georgia decided not to rule on whether a government's right to ignore local zoning rules on its own property can be passed on to whoever later buys that property, dismissing the case as improvidently granted.
321 Ga. 277 FINAL COPY S24G0359. CITY OF MADISON v. MORGAN COUNTY HOSPITAL AUTHORITY. ORDER OF THE COURT. After careful consideration of the record and the briefs of …
Ammons v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons: The Supreme Court of Georgia ruled that police cannot use a DUI suspect's refusal to take a preliminary breath test or cooperate with field sobriety tests as evidence at trial, overruling a 29-year-old precedent. The court also rejected a separate constitutional challenge to using blood test refusals as evidence.
… First, the dissent rejects long-standing interpretive principles and replaces them with a too-narrow focus on isolated words divorced from history and context. This novel approach would …
Bowman v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons: The Supreme Court of Georgia ruled that a Paulding County man's 2014 trial never happened in the eyes of the law because the 12 citizens who heard his case were never sworn in as a jury, so he is entitled to be discharged and acquitted under Georgia's speedy trial statute.
… However, citing dictionary definitions of the word “trial,” the Court of Appeals held that “Bowman was ‘tried’ or placed on ‘trial’ within the plain meaning” of OCGA § 17 …
Inquiry Concerning Judge Cary Hays III
Summary by Georgia Commons: The Supreme Court of Georgia accepted a disciplinary agreement suspending Crawford County Chief Magistrate Cary Hays III for 30 days without pay and publicly reprimanding him for shoving a handcuffed defendant.
… Judge Hays verbally engaged with the defendant and then followed him into a hallway, at which time Judge Hays exchanged a few more words with the defendant before …
Clark v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons: The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld a Murray County man's felony murder conviction, rejecting his claim that his lawyer and the trial judge mishandled a report that a juror had silently communicated with the victim's family.
… Johnson, having no money, “just stare[d] at him.” In Johnson’s words, “Clark looks at me and says f**k it and puts the car in reverse …
State v. Newsom
Summary by Georgia Commons: The Supreme Court of Georgia ruled that Georgia's left-turn statute clearly tells drivers they must finish a left turn in the far-left lane, reversing a Carroll County judge's decision to throw out a DUI case.
… In 2010, among other changes not relevant here, the General Assembly amended the former statute to use the word “exit” instead of “leave.” See Ga. L. 2010, p …
In the Matter of Marsha Williams Mignott
Summary by Georgia Commons: The Supreme Court of Georgia dismissed disciplinary charges against attorney Marsha Williams Mignott, ruling that the professional conduct rules she was accused of breaking apply only to actual clients, not to someone who merely consulted her but never hired her.
… Nothing in the text of Rule 1.8 (b) or 1.9 (c) (2) allows us to interpret the word “client” as used in those rules to include …
McKinney v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons: The Supreme Court of Georgia ruled that prosecutors do not need to prove a defendant's other crimes were meant to help a gang before those crimes can be used as evidence in gang prosecutions under Rule 418, but such evidence can still be blocked under other fairness rules.
… Limiting the value of Rodriguez for the case before us now, these words and phrases in the version of OCGA § 16-15-4 (a) in effect at the …
Gray v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons: The Supreme Court of Georgia ruled that a trial judge keeps the power to modify a criminal sentence under Georgia's sentence-modification law even if the judge rules after the one-year deadline, as long as the request to modify was filed within that year.
… Relying on the addition of the word “jurisdiction” to OCGA § 17-10-1 (f) in 2001, the Court of Appeals held that the text explicitly limited trial courts …
Stewart v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons: The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld James Stewart's felony murder conviction in the shooting death of his girlfriend, rejecting claims that the jury verdict form was improperly worded, but the court vacated his separate aggravated assault sentence because it should have merged into the murder conviction.
… And in that event the form of your verdict would be – and we specified it for you with the bold wording for you to find accordingly. The court …
State v. Brinkley
Summary by Georgia Commons: The Supreme Court of Georgia sent a murder case back to a Fulton County trial judge after finding she applied the wrong legal test in blocking evidence that the defendant said he fled police because he did not want to return to prison.
316 Ga. 689 FINAL COPY S23A0507. THE STATE v. BRINKLEY. PETERSON, Presiding Justice. Demarcus Brinkley is charged with the kidnapping, attempted rape, and murder of Mariam Khalid Abdulrab …
Murphy v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons: The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld a man's felony murder conviction from an Augusta nightclub shooting, rejecting his claims about excluded hearsay evidence, a Brady violation, jury instructions, an indictment defect, and ineffective assistance of counsel.
… In other words, Murphy argues that the statements should have been admitted because the evidence that the statements were actually made by Ellison is trustworthy. Murphy’s focus …
Demuro v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons: The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld Joshua DeMuro's murder conviction for shooting Kevin Gilman, ruling that the jury had enough evidence to reject his self-defense claim and finding no reversible error in the jury instructions.
… DeMuro testified that Cody drove DeMuro’s truck and stopped beside Mihailidis’s truck in the middle of Hurst Avenue, and Cody and Mihailidis exchanged “heated words” through …