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Found 119 matching documents.
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · February 21, 2023
State v. Wilson
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia affirmed a trial court's decision to throw out evidence from a murder suspect's cell phones, ruling the search warrant let police grab 'any and all' data without limiting the search to evidence of the crime.
PINSON, Justice, concurring. We need to talk about cell phones. In Riley v. California, 573 U.S. 373 (134 SCt 2473, 189 LE2d 430) (2014), the United States Supreme Court took a small step down the road of applying the Fourth Amendment to the modern cell phone. Riley addressed the question whether the police could, without a warrant, search digital...
Riley rejected this understanding of cell phones. Indeed, the Riley Court supposed treating cell phones like other physical items that could be found on a person was “like saying a ride on horseback is materially indistinguishable from a flight to the moon. Both are ways of getting from point A to point B, but little else justifies lumping them together.”...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · October 25, 2022
Reese v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia reversed a Laurens County man's felony murder conviction because the trial judge refused to update a jury instruction on self-defense after this court had just warned that the old wording could confuse jurors, and the confusion in fact occurred.
A few minutes after Stanley arrived and parked at the far end of the row of parking spaces, Jonathan Linder arrived in a Toyota sedan with Devero in the front passenger seat, pulled into the first spot in the row of parking spaces, and parked. Linder and Devero got out, walked to the rear of the Toyota, and leaned on either side of the trunk. A minute...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · October 11, 2023
Prodigies Child Care Management, LLC v. Cotton
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia ruled that the 'special circumstances exception' used by the Court of Appeals for lunch-break and commuting car accidents is not a real separate legal rule, but just a way of applying the ordinary test for when an employer can be sued for an employee's actions.
unpaid lunch break during her work day, and on January 26, she used her lunch break to perform in a puppet show so that she could earn extra credit in one of her courses. Earlier that day, Bouie told her manager that she would return from her lunch break “a little bit late,” likely “a little after 2[:00 p.m.].” She clocked out for her lunch break at 12:53...
In addition, the amended complaint alleged, and Cotton later drivers from holding a cell phone in their hands, see OCGA § 40-6-241, was not in effect at the time of the accident. See Ga. L. 2018, p. 127, § 4. 3 The amended complaint also alleged a claim of negligent training and supervision against University Childcare. That claim is not at issue here, so...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · May 5, 2026
Jackson v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld a DeKalb County man's convictions for the murder of a nine-month-old and other gang-related shootings, rejecting challenges to the evidence, his lawyer's performance, and the trial judge's handling of a mistrial request.
Agent Thompson testified as an expert in criminal street gangs and street gang activity. 10 As to cell phones, Agent Thomp- son testified that they were being smuggled into Georgia prisons at an increased rate and that they allowed for inmates—and par- ticularly gang members—to engage in criminal activity from prison. He also described the methods by which...
4 Thomas and Investigator Pinckney testified that a “MOET” is a fe- male gang member of SMM. 5 Thomas was sentenced to serve life in prison plus 20 years. showed calls with Thomas’s phone on the day of the shooting and calls with the -6765 number in the days following the shooting, and placed the -3508 number in DeKalb County immediately be- fore and after...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · August 13, 2026
Dorsey v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld a DeKalb County man's felony murder conviction, ruling that photos and video showing him with guns were properly admitted and that his lawyer's failure to press for identification jury instructions did not change the trial's outcome.
1. The evidence presented at trial showed the following. In October 2021, 22-year-old Wilson—who was on leave from the military—met 16-year-old Salazar-Chavez. Soon thereafter, the pair began an exclusive romantic relationship. Most of their re- lationship was long-distance, as Wilson was stationed in South Korea or North Carolina while Salazar-Chavez...
Wilson was shot in his left leg; Salazar-Chavez was shot in her left arm and the left side of her chest. A medical examiner testified that Salazar-Chavez died from the shot to her chest. Investigators who responded to the scene recovered 11 nine-millimeter cartridge casings, and a firearms examiner later testified that all 11 of those casings were fired...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · June 11, 2024
Tatum v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia ruled that courts applying the independent source doctrine must decide whether police decided to seek a search warrant because of an earlier illegal search, not just whether the warrant application had enough evidence on its own.
Evidence from Deputy Townsend’s testimony, his body-worn camera, and the parties’ stipulations was largely consistent and shows the following. On July 15, 2018, at 10:34 p.m.,5 the Madison County 911 call center received a call regarding an unknown 5 The parties jointly stipulated that the call was received at 10:34 p.m., but the warrant affidavit states...
Deputy Townsend asked if Appellant would show him the last photograph he had taken. Appellant initially declined, but after Deputy Townsend told Appellant that he could detain him and obtain a search warrant, Appellant agreed. As Appellant was pulling up the gallery of photographs on his phone, he tilted his phone away from the deputy, preventing the deputy...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · October 27, 2026
State v. McGriff
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia reversed a Clinch County judge's order suppressing a teenager's March 11 statement to investigators, but sent two earlier statements back for more fact-finding because the judge's findings did not adequately support the conclusion that he was in custody.
(b) March 6 Statement At the motion to suppress hearing, the State presented the testimony of Agent Hundley in connection with McGriff’s March 6 interview. Agent Hundley testified that she asked to speak to McGriff at the Florida hospital, 9 and after he agreed, she inter- viewed him in a waiting room; a portion of that interview was audio recorded. She did...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · February 17, 2026
Dempsey v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld a Gwinnett County teenager's felony murder convictions in the shooting deaths of two men during a botched marijuana deal, finding the evidence sufficient and the trial judge's decision to let jurors hear about his probation status proper.
On August 10, Sergeant Pierson interviewed Dempsey, who was 16 at the time, at his home with his grandmother present. During the interview, Dempsey gave his cell phone to Sergeant Pierson. On August 15, after reading Dempsey the “Advice of Rights to Juveniles” form, 4 Sergeant Pierson interviewed Dempsey again in the presence of his grandmother at police...
acquaintance of Davis, and Davis committed the murders.7 Additionally, Dempsey stated that, after investigators searched the Amy Road house, Davis called Dempsey and said that investigators found a firearm inside the house.8 After Sergeant Pierson obtained a search warrant for the information on Dempsey’s cell phone, the Gwinnett County Police Department’s...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · September 9, 2026
Ash v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld Richard Ash's murder conviction, ruling that cell phone location data and other evidence sufficiently backed up an accomplice's testimony and that Ash's silence at his first trial's mistrial waived any double jeopardy challenge to his retrial.
Atlanta Police Detective Kevin Leonpacher, who was tendered as an expert at trial in the field of “historical cell phone data,” “cell tower analysis,” and “phone data analysis,” testified that he received phone records from the cellular service providers for the cell phones of Ash, Fuller, Larkins, Mack, and Sherry pursuant to a search warrant. Detective...
6 Ash’s Google account, including his gmail account, and his location services were activated on his cell phone. residence in Riverdale, 7 and at 5:38 a.m., the user of Ash’s cell phone placed a call near the intersection of Hadlock Street and Leslie Avenue while in close proximity to the other defendants’ cell phones. At 10:08 p.m. on August 4, the user of...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · May 17, 2021
Griffin v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld a DeKalb County man's murder conviction, rejecting claims that jurors improperly reviewed cell phone texts during deliberations and that his lawyer was ineffective for not blocking that review.
Eventually, Griffin was arrested at the hotel, and he had another cell phone in his possession that he later denied owning. When Griffin was being booked into jail, he named Rufus and Robby Griffin from Alabama as his emergency contacts. While in jail, Griffin made two calls to the number shared by Rufus and Robby, and this phone number was found in the...
7 There was testimony that Griffin had been working as a prostitute. 8 Griffin’s counsel objected on the ground that the State had not shown a proper chain of custody, but the objection was overruled. No other objections were raised. Following the admission of the cell phone, which had been charged prior to trial, Griffin made no objection to its being sent...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · September 16, 2025
Ealey v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld Deanthony Ealey's malice murder convictions for the shooting deaths of two people in a Walmart parking lot, rejecting challenges to the evidence, prior-acts testimony, hearsay, and his trial lawyer's performance.
At trial, Detective Clint Patton of the Fayette County Sheriff’s Office was qualified as an expert in forensic cell phone analysis, and he testified that he conducted a search of Woods’s cell phone pursuant to a search warrant. Woods’s cell phone records demonstrated that, at around 12:00 p.m. on January 13, Woods’s phone received a phone call lasting “a...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · August 18, 2026
Greene v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld a Sumter County man's felony murder conviction, finding the evidence was enough for the jury to reject his self-defense claim and that his trial lawyer was not constitutionally deficient.
By way of background, on the second day of trial, the trial court sua sponte addressed jurors about potential misconduct on two occasions. First, the court dismissed the jury for lunch but asked an alternate juror to stay behind and asked her if she had been falling asleep. The alternate juror responded that she had not been falling asleep, that she had a...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · August 13, 2024
Nunnally v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld a DeKalb County man's murder conviction, ruling that circumstantial evidence including cell phone records and text messages was enough to prove he killed his marijuana customer and that a party-to-a-crime jury instruction was proper.
2 On direct and cross-examination, Lamar conceded that he previously told investigators that Mitchell left his home around 2:00 a.m. on December 31, 2018. Notwithstanding his prior statement, Lamar confirmed at trial that Mitchell left between 10:00 p.m. and midnight. Appellant in November 2018 for him to use, and the other ending in -2761, which she used....
Mitchell’s mother testified that because her tablet was synced with Mitchell’s phone, she could read the text messages on Mitchell’s phone. Using this information, she began calling the numbers Mitchell’s phone had recently texted. These numbers included the number corresponding to the phone McClendon had provided to Appellant. When Mitchell’s mother called...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · May 31, 2023
Knox v. State of Georgia
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia ruled that a lawsuit by five University System professors challenging Georgia's 2017 'campus carry' law was moot, because the Board of Regents itself adopted a policy allowing guns on campus consistent with that law.
5 See Ga. Const. of 1983, Art. I, Sec. I, Par. VIII (“The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed, but the General Assembly shall have power to prescribe the manner in which arms may be borne.”); Ga. L. 1994, p. 1012, § 4 (adding public or private technical schools, vocational schools, colleges, universities, and other institutions...
10 In pertinent part, OCGA § 16-11-127.1 (c) (2017) as amended provided: The provisions of this Code section [making it unlawful for any person to carry or possess any weapon while within a school safety zone, at a school function, or on a bus or other transportation furnished by a school] shall not apply to: ... (20) (A) Any weapons carry license holder...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · June 21, 2023
MUSE v. THE STATE (Three Cases)
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia affirmed the murder and gang convictions of three men involved in a shootout at an Atlanta gas station, rejecting challenges to the evidence, jury procedures, and severance of their joint trial.
Sergeant Lakea Gaither testified that she had been a detective in the gang unit of the Atlanta Police Department for over seven years and had encountered over a thousand gang members during that time. She testified that the Bloods are a criminal street gang acting within Fulton County and that the “Nine Trey Bloods,” nicknamed “Billy Bad Ass,” are a sect of...
In addition, Investigator Jared Watkins testified that he performed a “phone dump” of Muse’s cell phone, which involved using a software program to extract information from the phone. The messages that Watkins extracted from Muse’s cell phone showed that Muse received an incoming message on November 2, 2014, that said that “[h]e who walks by these...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · August 10, 2020
Griffin v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld Antonio Griffin's murder conviction, finding his lawyer was not ineffective for letting a witness testify about a recorded phone call, since no court had ever ruled such testimony inadmissible.
(a) Nothing in Code Section 16-11-62 shall prohibit a person from intercepting a wire, oral, or electronic communication where such person is a party to the communication or one of the parties to the communication has given prior consent to such interception. (b) After obtaining the consent required by this subsection, the telephonic conversations or...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · May 3, 2021
State v. Walden
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia reversed a ruling that had suppressed statements a Newton County woman made to investigators before receiving Miranda warnings, finding video evidence showed she was not in custody at the time.
Shortly thereafter, Deputy Sydnor received instructions over his radio to “detain” Walden, stop talking to her, and bring her in to the sheriff’s office. It does not appear from the video recording that Walden noticed the instruction that she be “detained,” however, because she was talking in a focused and intense manner when that message came across the...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · February 7, 2023
Rucker v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld a man's murder conviction for a fatal home invasion in Southwest Atlanta, rejecting his arguments about a missing jury instruction and a delayed trial.
5 Printup testified that he tried calling Mia’s phone number while he was in the hospital, and an unidentified woman answered the call. was able to review the corresponding call logs, Finch passed away, and the case was reassigned to Atlanta Police Detective Cedric Smith in the homicide unit. Detective Smith testified that, after he took over the...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · October 15, 2024
Nabors v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld a Fulton County man's murder conviction, rejecting his claims that his lawyer wrongly advised him not to testify and that the case rested only on accomplice testimony.
4 Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U. S. 436 (86 SCt 1602, 16 LE2d 694) (1966). stated Nabors went to the hospital with Milan and others in the early morning hours of April 3, 2018. However, the data offered no insight into Nabors’s location after 6:22 a.m., Nabors’s call logs showed no outgoing activity after that time, and his phone stopped receiving calls shortly...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · May 13, 2025
McIver v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld Benjamin McIver's murder conviction in a Chatham County killing but reversed his armed robbery conviction because the evidence showed the gun was used only after the victim's debit card was already taken.
Cell phone data also showed that Wilcox spoke with McIver at least seven times between 8:40 a.m. and 11:52 a.m., with a few of their calls lasting longer than ten minutes. At 11:29 a.m., McIver texted Wilcox “Savannah Gardens off Pennsylvania Avenue” and then “Kall when you in route so I can B050.” At McIver’s trial, the State’s gang expert testified that...
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