Georgia CommonsCourt opinions
Georgia Supreme Court decisions with plain-language summaries. Browse by year and case type, or search by case name.
Young v. State
The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld Rodney Young's murder conviction and death sentence, rejecting his claim that Georgia's requirement to prove intellectual disability beyond a reasonable doubt is unconstitutional.
ARMSTRONG v. CUFFIE
The Supreme Court of Georgia ruled that a legal malpractice claim over a botched underinsured motorist claim did not start the clock until the deadline to serve the insurer had passed, not when the lawyer first learned of possible coverage.
Flood v. State
The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld a Chatham County woman's felony murder conviction for stabbing her longtime boyfriend, rejecting her self-defense argument and finding no reversible error in jury instructions or closing arguments.
GATTO v. CITY OF STATESBORO
The Supreme Court of Georgia ruled that the City of Statesboro cannot be sued for a nuisance on private property it did not own or control, affirming that the city is immune from a lawsuit over a fatal bar beating.
Gilliam v. State
The Supreme Court of Georgia ruled it has no authority to hear an aggravated assault appeal just because a co-defendant's murder appeal belongs there, and disavowed decades of cases that had used 'judicial economy' as an excuse to keep such cases.
HARVEY v. MERCHAN
The Supreme Court of Georgia ruled that a woman's revived childhood sexual abuse lawsuit against her parents can proceed for abuse alleged in both Quebec and Georgia, though the trial court must first sort out which state's time limits control the Quebec-based claims.
Heade v. State
The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld a Gwinnett County man's murder conviction, ruling that evidence of three prior crimes was properly admitted at trial, but found the trial court made two sentencing errors that must be corrected.
Hood v. State
The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld Jamie Donnell Hood's convictions for murdering Kenneth Wray and Athens-Clarke County Officer Elmer Christian, finding no reversible error in the prosecution's handling of a witness's undisclosed deals or the jury instructions given at trial.
Huffman v. State
The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld a Forsyth County man's felony murder conviction, ruling that his confession to police was properly used against him because he understood and waived his Miranda rights before speaking.
In the Matter of David J. Farnham
The Supreme Court of Georgia sent a lawyer discipline case back for a hearing, ruling that striking an attorney's pleadings as a discovery sanction without any hearing was not justified on this record.
In the Matter of Joseph Roger Davis
The Supreme Court of Georgia disbarred attorney Joseph Roger Davis for abandoning a client facing criminal charges and lying to her about arrest warrants, then refusing to respond to the State Bar's disciplinary investigation.
Jackson v. Crickmar, Warden
The Supreme Court of Georgia ruled that a man convicted as a teenager for a 2007 shooting can raise sentence-merger errors for the first time in a habeas corpus case, and found two of his convictions should have merged into his attempted murder conviction.
Kelly v. State
The Supreme Court of Georgia dismissed a murder appeal because the defendant filed a second motion for new trial that raised no new ineffective-assistance claims after receiving an out-of-time appeal, making her notice of appeal months late.
Kinslow v. State
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.
Merritt v. State
The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld the murder conviction of a Polk County man who shot his wife, finding the evidence sufficient and that any trial errors did not affect the outcome.
Montanez v. State
The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld a man's murder convictions in a fatal Sandy Springs drug deal shooting, rejecting his claims that the evidence was insufficient and that his lawyer botched cross-examination of his accomplice.
Moon v. State
The Supreme Court of Georgia reversed a Chatham County man's murder convictions because the trial judge improperly removed a holdout juror during deliberations without a sound legal basis for doing so.
STAR RESIDENTIAL, LLC v. HERNANDEZ
The Supreme Court of Georgia ruled that a shooting victim could not sue his apartment complex's owner and operator for treble damages under the state's anti-gang law, because that law only lets victims sue the gang members who actually caused their injuries.
Sullivan v. State
The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld a DeKalb County man's murder conviction, rejecting claims that his trial lawyer's mistakes about gang evidence, a possible gun, and an investigator's testimony cost him a fair trial.
Taylor v. State
The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld Micayla Taylor's felony murder and aggravated assault convictions arising from a Newton County shooting, rejecting claims about insufficient evidence, a botched suppression motion, a speedy trial violation, a jury instruction, and ineffective counsel.