Georgia CommonsCourt opinions
Georgia Supreme Court decisions with plain-language summaries. Browse by year and case type, or search by case name.
Morgan v. State
The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld Deangelo Morgan's murder conviction, ruling that excluded evidence about drugs and other suspects would not have changed the outcome and that his lawyer's advice not to testify was a reasonable strategy.
Nelson v. State
The Supreme Court of Georgia vacated a ruling that denied a Fulton County murder defendant's motion to dismiss his indictment on speedy trial grounds, finding the trial court made factual errors and misapplied the law in weighing the delay.
Patterson v. State
The Supreme Court of Georgia vacated a Chatham County murder conviction appeal and sent the case back to the trial court, ruling that an earlier untimely notice of appeal had stripped the trial court of power to redo its order denying a new trial.
Perry, Warden v. Blevins
The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld a Gwinnett County judge's order granting habeas relief to a man convicted of sexual assault, because the state's appeal failed to challenge all the reasons the habeas court gave for its ruling.
Routh v. State
The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld the felony murder convictions of a man who shot two convenience store workers, ruling that the trial judge acted properly in limiting cross-examination of the lead detective.
Wallace v. State
The Supreme Court of Georgia ruled that a man convicted of murder could not get original autopsy photographs from the state under the Open Records Act because his request was for legal, not medical, purposes and did not serve the public interest.
Ballard v. State
The Supreme Court of Georgia affirmed the denial of a series of post-conviction motions filed by a man convicted of a 1995 murder, including his bid for retroactive first-offender treatment and a second extraordinary motion for new trial.
Cooper v. State
The Supreme Court of Georgia affirmed a DeKalb County teenager's murder conviction, holding that reindicting him after 180 days did not strip the superior court of jurisdiction because the original charge was filed on time.
Kingdom v. State
The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld Devin Kingdom's murder conviction in a Fulton County shooting, ruling that even if a detective's testimony about a dead witness's identification broke confrontation and hearsay rules, the mistake was harmless given overwhelming other evidence.
Long v. State
The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld a Coweta County man's murder conviction, ruling the trial judge was right to reject the jury's initial verdict finding him guilty of both voluntary manslaughter and felony murder for the same shooting.
Pinckney v. State
The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld a Chatham County man's guilty plea to malice murder, ruling his lawyer was not ineffective for failing to tell him he could appeal the trial court's refusal to instruct the jury on voluntary manslaughter.
State v. Brantley
The Supreme Court of Georgia reversed a trial court order that had blocked prosecutors from using a murder defendant's recorded jail phone calls, ruling he had no privacy right in those calls and no equal protection violation occurred.
State v. Williams
The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld orders granting new trials to two men convicted of murder and other crimes, ruling that the trial judge improperly told the jury that three witnesses were the defendants' accomplices.
Williams v. State
The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld Michael Williams's murder conviction for shooting Tomas Gooden at a house party, finding that a flawed jury instruction on self-defense and his lawyer's alleged missteps did not change the trial's outcome.
Arnold v. Alexander
The Supreme Court of Georgia ruled it lacks 'original jurisdiction' to directly hear a mandamus petition from an indigent pro se litigant challenging the Fulton County Clerk's filing policies, and sent the case to the Court of Appeals instead.
In the Matter of Henry Lamar Willis
The Supreme Court of Georgia certified Henry Lamar Willis, a former lawyer disbarred in 2013 for mishandling client funds, as fit to practice law again after finding he proved his rehabilitation.
Rosenau v. State
The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld Frederick Rosenau's felony murder and gang activity convictions, rejecting his claims about insufficient evidence, a mistrial motion, and his lawyer's performance at trial.
State v. Hylton
The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld a trial court's decision granting a homeless Stone Mountain man pretrial immunity from murder charges, ruling the brief order was enough to review and the shooting was justified self-defense.
State v. Dias
The Supreme Court of Georgia vacated a Fulton County ruling that struck down part of the state's DUI implied consent law, finding the trial judge relied on the wrong legal precedent to exclude evidence that a driver refused a blood test.
Berry v. State
The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld a Richmond County man's murder conviction, ruling that a co-defendant's statements did not need independent corroboration because the jury could find he was not an accomplice, and rejecting an ineffective-assistance claim as waived.