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Found 74 matching documents.
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · March 1, 2021
In the Matter of Willie George Davis, Jr
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia rejected a proposed 18-month suspension for an attorney who mishandled his sister's estate and his orphaned nephew's money, finding the punishment too weak given how long it could effectively keep him in limbo.
Among other things, the Special Master concluded that Davis did not maintain and had not provided any records of how much of his nephew’s funds he spent for the benefit of his nephew, such that the record showed only that the money was unaccounted for, not necessarily that Davis converted it and used it for his own purposes; and that, indeed, the State Bar...
3. Special Master’s Recommendation of Discipline. (a) Aggravating and mitigating factors. The Special Master looked to the ABA Standards for Imposing Lawyer Sanctions for guidance in determining the appropriate punishment for Davis’s misconduct, see In the Matter of Morse, 266 Ga. 652, 653 (470 SE2d 232) (1996), and found that Davis correctly noted in his...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · November 2, 2021
George v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia ruled that police cannot seize items outside a search warrant's scope just because those items are 'relevant,' and instead must meet the stricter plain view doctrine before taking such evidence.
In effect, the Court of Appeals concluded that the State need only show that evidence was “relevant” or “related” to the matter under investigation to justify the seizure of evidence outside the scope of a search warrant. But that conclusion was erroneous, as was the holding in Walsh, because the seizure of such evidence not subject to any other exception...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · June 21, 2021
Moon v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): 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.
To convict Moon of malice murder and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon during the commission of a crime, the State was not required to prove that Moon personally fired the shots that killed Pickels and Biancosino, only that he was a party to the crimes, which, in this case, meant that he intentionally aided or abetted in the commission of the...
(ii) Motive. To properly show motive, “the extrinsic evidence must be logically relevant and necessary to prove something other than the accused’s propensity to commit the crime charged.” (Citation and punctuation omitted.) Strong, 309 Ga. at 312 (2) (d) (2). The State argued that the evidence of Moon’s other violent acts was relevant to show that he...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · March 15, 2021
Moss v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld a Houston County teen's murder conviction and his sentence of life without parole, rejecting claims of ineffective trial counsel and finding the trial judge properly determined the crimes reflected permanent incorrigibility.
Moss’s crimes reflected irreparable corruption or permanent incorrigibility before entry of Moss’s original LWOP sentence. After Moss’s amended motion for new trial was filed, Moss and the State agreed that Moss was entitled to a new sentencing hearing for the trial court to make such a determination before Moss could be sentenced to LWOP for crimes...
(b) Moss also contends that his trial counsel was constitutionally ineffective for failing to demur to the aggravated battery count of the indictment, as well as the felony murder and firearm counts that were predicated on aggravated battery. Under OCGA § 16-5-24 (a): A person commits the offense of aggravated battery when he or she maliciously causes...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · August 10, 2021
Alston & Bird, LLP v. Hatcher Management Holdings, LLC
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia ruled that Georgia's fault-sharing statute lets juries reduce damages based on a nonparty's blame only when a lawsuit names more than one defendant, and it ruled that litigation expense awards for bad faith can also be divided by fault.
Colorado’s apportionment statute is similar to ours, so we have previously looked to it for guidance in interpreting our apportionment statute. See, e.g., Atlanta Women’s Specialists, LLC owner” in the singular, the record in the case reveals that the suit was brought against two entities (Red Roof Inns, Inc. and R Roof V LLC). v. Trabue, 310 Ga. 331, 341...
Finally, A&B and amici argue that allowing apportionment of damages according to the percentage of fault allocated to nonparties in multiple-defendant cases but not in single-defendant cases would be arbitrary and not reflective of the General Assembly’s intent. But “[t]he best indicator of the General Assembly’s intent is the statutory text it actually...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · December 14, 2021
Bates v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld a Barrow County man's murder conviction for shooting his neighbor and the neighbor's dog, rejecting all four claims that his trial lawyers provided constitutionally inadequate representation.
PROSECUTOR: He told law enforcement that he did what he told the victim he was going to do when he said: I done what I told him. Would that be consistent or inconsistent with someone experiencing PTSD symptoms? DR. GAY: I would say that would be inconsistent. And that kind of goes back to premeditation and intent. Assuming without deciding that Dr. Gay...
313 Ga. 57 FINAL COPY S21A1188. BATES v. THE STATE.
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · December 14, 2021
Bell v. Hargrove
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia ruled that a probate judge cannot deny a weapons carry license just because a criminal history report leaves the outcome of an old arrest unclear. The judge must have actual proof of a disqualifying conviction, not mere speculation.
When construing a statute, “we must presume that the General Assembly meant what it said and said what it meant.” Deal v. Coleman, 294 Ga. 170, 172 (1) (a) (751 SE2d 337) (2013) (citation and punctuation omitted). Accordingly, we “afford the statutory text its plain and ordinary meaning,” “view[ing] the statutory text in the context in which it appears,”...
shall issue such applicant a license or renewal license to carry any weapon unless facts establishing ineligibility have been reported or unless the judge determines such applicant has not met all the qualifications, is not of good moral character, or has failed to comply with any of the requirements contained in this Code section. . . . Id. (emphasis...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · June 1, 2021
Holmes v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld Dequan Holmes's murder conviction and his life-without-parole sentence for a killing he committed just days before turning 18, rejecting his self-defense claim and his Eighth Amendment challenge.
The 2013 sentencing hearing was held after the United States Supreme Court’s 2012 decision in Miller v. Alabama, 567 U.S. 460 (132 SCt 2455, 183 LE2d 407) (2012). The trial judge did not explicitly mention Holmes’s age or discuss the characteristics of youth during sentencing. In his order denying Holmes’s motion for new trial, however, the judge stated...
311 Ga. 698 FINAL COPY S21A0377. HOLMES v. THE STATE.
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · June 21, 2021
Wilson v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld a stepfather's convictions for molesting his 13-year-old stepdaughter, ruling that evidence he had molested his younger half-sister decades earlier as a child himself was properly admitted at trial.
At common law[,] infancy is usually regarded as being divided into three distinct periods as to which distinct presumption for capacity or incapacity prevails. An infant under the age of seven (in Georgia changed by statute to ten years) is presumed to have no capacity to commit a crime, and such presumption is conclusive and unrebuttable. After fourteen...
10 Wilson argues that he would have been 12 years old for almost eight months of 1986, when the molestation of P. W. was alleged to have occurred in the State’s notice, and 13 years old for the last four months of 1986. Wilson was 13 years old or older when the prior offenses occurred, this argument fails. To the extent that Wilson was under the age of 13...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · June 24, 2021
Young v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): 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.
Since the death penalty for juveniles was outlawed by the 5-4 decision in Roper v. Simmons, 543 U.S. 551, 578 (125 SCt 1183, 161 LE2d 1) (2005), the clear trend line of the United States Supreme Court’s cases in this area (all decided by narrow margins) was to restrict the states’ authority to punish juveniles. In particular, the reasoning of the Court’s...
(ii) We turn now to the procedural issue that Young raises regarding the constitutionality of Georgia’s standard of proof. On this question, we begin and end with the Supreme Court’s statement in Atkins that it “‘l[eft] to the State(s) the task of developing appropriate ways to enforce the [federal] constitutional restriction’” on executing intellectually...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · August 24, 2021
In the Matter of Carl S. Von Mehren
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia accepted a Statesboro-area lawyer's petition for voluntary discipline and suspended him for six months after he admitted mishandling client trust funds and failing to protect a client's legal defense.
In his petition for voluntary discipline, Von Mehren asserted that he initially believed the man had a viable legal argument based on the man’s staunch belief that his outbuilding was located entirely on his own property. However, after learning that the results of a survey showed the man’s outbuilding to be located mostly or entirely on the property owned...
Having found violations of Rules 1.3, 1.15 (I) (a), and 1.16, the Special Master turned her attention to the appropriate level of discipline, noting that the maximum penalty for a single violation of Rules 1.3 and 1.15 (I) (a) is disbarment, and the maximum penalty for a violation of Rule 1.16 is a public reprimand. The Special Master correctly recited that...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · July 7, 2021
In the Matter of Joel S. Wadsworth
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia disbarred attorney Joel S. Wadsworth after he abandoned several clients in a Fulton County lawsuit, failing to respond to court motions or communicate with them while continuing to practice after becoming ineligible for not paying his bar dues.
Wadsworth “did not withdraw from representation after he became ineligible to practice law on September 1, 2017,” and that “[t]o date, [Wadsworth] is ineligible to practice law for failure to pay his State Bar of Georgia dues.” The special master’s recommendation likewise included findings that Wadsworth “remained counsel of record for plaintiffs . . ....
312 Ga. 159 FINAL COPY S21Y1016. IN THE MATTER OF JOEL S. WADSWORTH.
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · March 15, 2021
McGarity v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld a Paulding County man's murder conviction but threw out his convictions on two lesser charges after finding the trial court wrongly let a police captain repeat witnesses' earlier statements to boost their credibility.
OCGA § 24-6-613 (c), enacted as part of the overhaul of our rules of evidence that took effect on January 1, 2013, see Ga. L. 2011, p. 99, § 2, represents Georgia’s first codification of a rule on the admissibility of prior consistent statements. See Walters v. State, 335 Ga. App. 12, 13 (780 SE2d 720) (2015). Prior to the adoption of OCGA § 24-6-613 (c),...
violation by not producing the document and had also violated its statutory duty to “reduce anything that [Harlow] did in this case to writing.”10 The prosecutor responded that this document was merely an “internal computer printout” related to the chain of custody; that he believed all documents had been provided to the defense; and that the “remedy” would...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · August 24, 2021
State v. Gilmore
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia ruled that a silent video showing a confidential informant buying drugs from a man can be used as evidence, because the informant's actions on camera were not an intentional statement covered by the Confrontation Clause.
2. Analysis. (a) Standard of Review. . We ordinarily review the trial court’s grant of a motion in limine for abuse of discretion. See State v. Stephens, 307 Ga. 615, 616 (837 SE2d 830) (2020). And when confronted with a mixed question of law and fact, “we accept the trial court’s findings on disputed facts and witness credibility unless they are clearly...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · December 14, 2021
Hines v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld a man's murder conviction, rejecting his argument that the trial judge should not have let a last-minute witness testify against him.
At trial, Johnson testified that she spent two days in Gaines’s apartment braiding Gaines’s and Hines’s hair, working on Gaines’s hair one day and on Hines’s hair the next. Johnson said that her work was interrupted because Hines and Gaines “were arguing back-and-forth repeatedly.” Johnson further recalled Hines saying: “I don’t even like black girls,...
4 OCGA § 17-16-6 provides in relevant part: If at any time during the course of the proceedings it is brought to the attention of the court that the state has failed to comply with the requirements of this article, the court may order the state to permit the discovery or inspection, interview of the witness, grant a continuance, or, upon a showing of...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · March 1, 2021
In the Matter of L. Nicole Brantley
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia rejected an attorney's request for a mere reprimand over her failure to refund client fees, finding her disciplinary history and lack of candor called for a tougher sanction to be decided after a full hearing.
2 On July 22, 2020, this Court entered an order appointing Marlin as Special Master; the order also vacated the 2016 order that had appointed a prior Special Master. Marlin issued his report on September 20, 2020. His thorough and helpful report reflects that Brantley submitted her proof of final payment to the State Bar in July 2017. The record does not...
In its complaint, the State Bar recited the following chronology. After being retained in October 2013, Brantley was discharged by the client, who was dissatisfied with Brantley’s lack of communication and failure to follow his instructions in handling his case. Brantley, however, never submitted a written request to withdraw, in violation of Uniform...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · April 5, 2021
In the Matter of Jason Lee Van Dyke
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia rejected a Texas lawyer's request to end his suspension from practicing law in Georgia, saying too many unanswered questions remain about his conduct and other discipline he faced elsewhere.
5 Van Dyke has also apparently been suspended with similar conditions by federal district courts in both the Northern and Eastern Districts of Texas. 6 Although Van Dyke submitted copies of the various suspension orders, he has not provided documentation showing that the Texas Bar has reinstated him. As referenced above, Van Dyke has recently submitted a...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · October 5, 2021
Emmons, Warden v. Bryant
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia reversed a habeas court order that had granted a new trial to a man convicted of aggravated sexual battery, finding his appellate lawyer did not provide constitutionally inadequate representation.
As to the first of these issues, Haddad did assert an ineffectiveness claim based on Wyatt’s failure to object to the witnesses’ testimony about the text messages. The Court of Appeals rejected this claim, concluding that, pretermitting whether Wyatt performed deficiently by failing to object on best-evidence grounds, there had been no showing of prejudice...
LAGRUA, Justice. This appeal arises from the grant of a petition for habeas corpus filed by Steven Bryant in connection with his 2015 conviction for aggravated sexual battery. In granting Bryant’s petition, the habeas court ruled that Bryant’s appellate counsel had rendered ineffective assistance by failing to properly assert several instances of trial...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · September 21, 2021
Cooper Tire & Rubber Company v. McCall
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia ruled that Cooper Tire, a Delaware company doing business in Georgia, can be sued here for a Florida car crash simply because it registered to do business in the state, reaffirming a nearly 30-year-old precedent.
312 Ga. 422 FINAL COPY S20G1368. COOPER TIRE & RUBBER COMPANY v. McCALL.
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · February 15, 2021
POLO GOLF AND COUNTRY CLUB HOMEOWNERS ASSOCIATION, INC. v. CUNARD
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld a Forsyth County ordinance requiring homeowners associations to maintain stormwater systems, rejecting a homeowners association's claims that the rule forces illegal trespass, involuntary servitude, or exceeds the county's authority.
requires the HOA to perform work on property owned by an individual lot owner, as opposed to property owned by the HOA. It thus argues that compelled labor on another’s property constitutes involuntary servitude. We have no trouble concluding that the HOA has not established a Thirteenth Amendment violation here. That is because the record belies the HOA’s...
14 We emphasize that we resolve the HOA’s as-applied challenges based on the record on appeal in this case, and in large part on the text of the various covenants and other agreements set forth in Polo Golf’s Declaration. We express no opinion about how similar as-applied challenges would fare under a different set of contractual agreements. 15 In Anderson,...
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