Georgia CommonsSearch every collection
Search Georgia Commons
Bills, Supreme Court opinions, the Code and the two constitutions, and House and Senate meeting transcripts, in one search. Ask in plain words: the search ranks passages by meaning as well as by their words.
Filters:Supreme Court of Georgia 2022 Clear filters
Found 86 matching documents.
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · September 20, 2022
Williams v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld a Richmond County man's murder conviction, rejecting his self-defense claim, his argument about an accomplice's guilty plea, and his claim that a 25-month delay before his retrial violated his right to a speedy trial.
4. Finally, Williams argues that his constitutional right to a speedy trial was violated when he was not brought to retrial for 25 months after remittitur of his case to the superior court following the reversal of his convictions by this Court. The trial court determined that Williams’s constitutional speedy-trial right was not violated and denied both a...
Courts examining an alleged denial of the constitutional right to a speedy trial first must consider whether the interval between the defendant’s arrest, indictment, or other formal accusation and the trial is sufficiently long so as to be characterized as presumptively prejudicial. If the delay is long enough to invoke the presumption of prejudice, the...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · December 20, 2022
Davis 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 speedy trial rights were violated, that evidence about the victim's friend was wrongly excluded, and that his lawyer was ineffective.
2. Davis first contends that he was denied his constitutional right to a speedy trial. In reviewing the trial court’s ruling on this issue, we accept the trial court’s factual findings unless they are clearly erroneous, and we will affirm its ultimate conclusion absent an abuse of discretion. See Burney v. State, 309 Ga. 273, 286 (4) (845 SE2d 625) (2020)....
2 Although this filing may have been intended as a statutory speedy-trial demand, it did not comply with the speedy-trial statute. See OCGA § 17-7-171. That Code section provides that, absent “special permission of the court,” any speedy-trial demand must be filed “at the term of court at which the indictment is found or at the next succeeding regular term...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · May 17, 2022
Redding v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia sent a Muscogee County murder case back to the trial court a second time, ruling that the judge misapplied the law and failed to properly weigh the factors used to decide speedy-trial claims.
1. As we explained in Redding I, [t]he record shows that [Appellant] was arrested on September 12, 2016, one week after the [murder]. [Appellant] was granted a bond on March 2, 2017, but he 1 See Barker v. Wingo, 407 U.S. 514, 530 (92 SCt 2182, 33 LE2d 101) (1972). See also Doggett v. United States, 505 U.S. 647, 652 (112 SCt 2686, 120 LE2d 520) (1992). 2...
apparently was unable to post the bond amount and so remained in jail. On September 28, 2017, [Appellant] filed a “Motion to Dismiss Charge Based on Violation of Constitutional Right to Speedy Trial.” At that point, [Appellant] had not yet been indicted, and he noted in his motion that he had repeatedly asked for his case to be presented to a grand jury and...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · May 17, 2022
Smith v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld a Dougherty County man's felony murder conviction for the beating death of Jerome Walden, rejecting arguments about the indictment and multiple ineffective-assistance claims against his trial lawyer.
(c) Smith next contends that his trial counsel provided ineffective assistance by failing to move for Smith’s acquittal after the State failed to try him on the felony murder charge within the period authorized by the speedy trial statute for capital cases. See OCGA § 17-7-171. Cf. OCGA § 17-7-170 (speedy trial statute for non- 8 To the extent that Smith is...
If more than two regular terms of court are convened and adjourned after the term at which the demand for speedy trial is filed and the defendant is not given a trial, then the defendant shall be absolutely discharged and acquitted of the offense charged in the indictment, provided that at both terms there were juries impaneled and qualified to try the...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · August 9, 2022
Harris v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld a Fulton County man's murder conviction, ruling the trial judge properly denied a last-minute continuance and that his trial lawyer's strategic choices did not amount to ineffective assistance.
PETERSON, Presiding Justice. Juan Keon Harris was convicted of murder and other crimes committed against Tony Morris.1 On appeal, Harris argues that the trial court should have granted him a continuance to call missing 1 The crimes took place on September 29, 2001. Harris was first indicted by a Fulton County grand jury on January 15, 2002. He was...
“All applications for continuances are addressed to the sound legal discretion of the court[,]” and we review a trial court’s denial of a continuance motion for an abuse of discretion. OCGA § 17-8-22; see also Geiger v. State, 295 Ga. 648, 651 (3) (763 SE2d 453) (2014). None of the alleged missing witnesses had been subpoenaed by the defense, and counsel...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · September 7, 2022
Reed v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld Jaquavious Reed's murder conviction over claims about a decade-long appeal delay, unrecorded bench conferences, and missing evidence, but ordered his felony murder sentence vacated as duplicative.
However, Reed’s arguments merely attack the credibility of Wilson and Feggins, and it is well settled that “it is the role of the jury to resolve conflicts in the evidence and to determine the credibility of witnesses, and the resolution of such conflicts adversely to the defendant does not render the evidence insufficient.” Graham v. State, 301 Ga. 675,...
“This Court has recognized that substantial delays experienced during the criminal appellate process implicate due process rights.” Chatman v. Mancill, 280 Ga. 253, 256 (2) (a) (626 SE2d 102) (2006). In assessing such claims, this Court considers four factors: “(1) the length of the delay; (2) the reason for the delay; (3) the defendant’s assertion of his...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · August 9, 2022
Dugar v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld Rita Mary Dugar's felony murder conviction, rejecting her claims that a judge's earlier bond hearing remarks pressured her into giving up a jury trial and that her lawyer was ineffective.
COURT: All right. So in any event, you all flesh it out. That’s what you all get paid the big bucks for. At a second bond hearing a month later, after Dugar had been indicted, the attorneys reminded the original trial judge of his earlier statement at the first bond hearing, and the prosecutor provided more information to the court, including further...
At an October 2019 status conference before a senior judge, the prosecutor said that Dugar’s attorney had recently informed the State that he planned to seek a bench trial. The prosecutor asked “for a week or so to make that determination [i.e., whether the State would agree to Dugar’s request for a bench trial] and then get with 3 Dobbs did not testify at...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · March 8, 2022
Hooper v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld Timone Hooper's murder conviction, rejecting claims that his lawyer should have requested a jury instruction on corroborating confessions and that spectators were wrongly excluded during juror questioning.
As to the third element, Hooper contends that the instructional error likely affected the outcome of the proceedings, because the trial court’s incomplete instruction “left the jury in the dark” about “the important requirement” that testimony that he made admissions of guilt after the event “had to be corroborated before [that testimony] could establish...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · February 1, 2022
Terrell v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld Frederick Terrell's murder-related convictions from a 2005 Atlanta shooting, rejecting claims about appellate delay, a mistrial, severance, and ineffective counsel, but corrected a sentencing error.
1 The crimes occurred on September 5, 2004. In December 2004, a Fulton County grand jury indicted Terrell, along with Kelvin Gilliam, Dwight Parks, and Michael Stinchcomb, for malice murder (Count 1), felony murder predicated on aggravated assault (Count 2), aggravated assault with a deadly weapon (Count 3), aggravated assault against Tamara Ross, D. R., G....
Turning to Terrell’s claim that his due process rights were violated by the inordinate delay in his appeal, the State concedes that at least two of the four factors weigh in Terrell’s favor — the length of delay and the assertion of the right.4 However, the State argues that Terrell cannot show the required prejudice. In assessing prejudice in this case, we...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · March 15, 2022
Alexander v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia ruled that a man convicted of sexually abusing his stepdaughters must prove the closed courtroom actually changed his trial's outcome to win an ineffective assistance claim, not merely that it was unfair.
2. The Right to a Public Trial, Structural Error, and Ineffective Assistance of Counsel The Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution provides that “the accused shall enjoy the right to a . . . public trial[.]” Before excluding the public from any stage of a criminal trial, the party seeking to close the courtroom “must advance an overriding...
Georgia statutory law mandates the partial closure of a courtroom when a person under the age of 16 testifies in a criminal case concerning a sexual offense, although the statute permits certain individuals, including the defendant’s immediate family members, to remain in the courtroom. See OCGA § 17-8-54;5 see also Scott v. State, 306 Ga. 507, 513 (832...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · November 2, 2022
Dougherty v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia ruled that a man convicted of felony murder cannot get his motion for a new trial reviewed on the merits, because of earlier appellate rulings that locked in when his conviction became final. The court vacated an out-of-time appeal and dismissed his latest appeal.
Dougherty will never have an appellate decision on the merits of his motion for a new trial or other matters he could have raised in a direct appeal, solely because his trial attorney refused to sign that first motion for a new trial, in violation of his duties as a member of the bar and an officer of the court. Decisions of this Court have dictated this...
Douglas P. Smith, for appellant. Jonathan L. Adams, District Attorney, Dorothy V. Hull, Cynthia T. Adams, Assistant District Attorneys; Christopher M. Carr, Attorney General, Patricia B. Attaway Burton, Deputy Attorney General, Paula K. Smith, Senior Assistant Attorney General, Alex M. Bernick, Assistant Attorney General, for appellee. address this...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · September 20, 2022
BUCKNER-WEBB v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia ruled that a trial judge's refusal to let an attorney withdraw over a conflict of interest cannot be immediately appealed, and upheld the dismissal of an appeal by former Atlanta Public Schools educators convicted in the test-cheating scandal.
(b) Application In the present case, the Court of Appeals majority concluded that the interlocutory order here — an order denying counsel’s motion to withdraw based on an alleged conflict of interest — was not immediately appealable under the collateral order doctrine ————————————————————— 9 See, e.g., Duke, 306 Ga. at 174 (1) (holding that the collateral...
If that language were not a clear enough rejection of a federal- style collateral-order doctrine, the statutory structure around OCGA § 5-6-34 (a)’s final-judgment rule is telling, too. That structure tells us in at least two ways that our jurisdictional statutes don’t contemplate that doctrine. First, our statute lists 12 further categories of “judgments...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · September 20, 2022
State v. Burton
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld a trial court's decision to suppress statements a 16-year-old made to police after his murder arrest, ruling the State failed to prove he knowingly and voluntarily waived his Miranda rights.
The record thus shows that the trial court reviewed and weighed the evidence presented at the motion-to-suppress hearing, and that it also made factual and credibility determinations in reaching its ultimate conclusion that, considering all of the Riley factors, the State failed to meet its burden of establishing that Burton knowingly and voluntarily waived...
(b) The Trial Court’s Order On November 22, the trial court entered an order granting Burton’s motion in part and suppressing all of the statements Burton made during his custodial interview.6 The trial court first noted that “the issues currently before the Court are whether [Burton] unequivocally invoked his right to silence or waived his 5 Some of the...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · August 9, 2022
PHILLIPS v. JACKSON, JUDGE
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia ruled that a man contesting driving restrictions imposed on him as part of a speeding citation could not use a pretrial habeas corpus petition to challenge those restrictions because he still had another legal remedy available.
PETERSON, Presiding Justice. A judge of the Municipal Court of Atlanta believed that Carey Phillips’s traffic citation gave rise to “quasi-bond” conditions that it could — and did — modify in order to restrict Phillips’s driving privileges. Phillips disagreed, but instead of appealing the municipal court judge’s order, he sought pretrial habeas relief...
(i) For which a driver’s license may be suspended for a first offense by the commissioner of driver services; (ii) Covered under Code Section 40-5-54 ; . . . ... (3) The apprehending officer shall include the individual’s driver’s license number on the uniform traffic citation. The uniform traffic citation, duly served as provided in this Code section,...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · March 15, 2022
Cook v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia eliminated the decades-old practice of letting convicted defendants ask a trial court directly for a late appeal, ruling that habeas corpus is now the only proper way to seek that relief.
Particularly in those sorts of cases, where the only issue is whether counsel failed to file timely, allowing post-conviction proceedings to be resolved by granting a motion for out-of-time appeal in the trial court is much more efficient than requiring a convicted defendant to turn to the much lengthier habeas process. Granting a motion for out-of-time...
Nor is the second entrenchment-related point the dissent makes dispositive: that when our out-of-time appeal precedents are applied, “it often makes a substantial difference,” because when such a motion is granted “it permits an appeal that would otherwise be barred without the years-long delay of habeas.” To be sure, when a trial court grants an...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · December 20, 2022
BARNHILL v. ALFORD
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia ruled that a grandmother could still seek visitation with her granddaughter even after the child's stepmother adopted her, and upheld the grandparent visitation law's clear-and-convincing-evidence standard as constitutional.
(c) The Trial Court’s Award of Grandparent Visitation Rights to Alford under OCGA § 19-7-3 (c) (1) The Barnhills also contend on appeal that, notwithstanding the unconstitutionality of OCGA § 19-7-3 (c) (1), the trial court abused its discretion by concluding that Alford met her burden under OCGA § 19-7-3 (c) (1). In support of this contention, the...
constitutional, and that is the standard the trial court applied here. Thus, there was no harm in the trial court’s application of OCGA § 19-7-3 (c) (1) in this case. “The decision to grant or deny a grandparent’s petition for visitation is within the discretion of the trial court, and we will affirm the court’s decision absent an abuse of that discretion.”...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · April 19, 2022
Rouzan v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia vacated a trial court order that had granted a Richmond County man an out-of-time appeal, holding that trial courts have no authority to decide such motions after the court's recent ruling in Cook v. State.
the merits . . . should be vacated if direct review of the case remains pending or if the case is otherwise not final.” Id. at ___ (4). Accordingly, the trial court’s June 21, 2021 order granting Rouzan’s motion for out-of-time appeal is vacated, and this case is remanded for the entry of an order dismissing Rouzan’s motion. Rouzan is advised that any...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · June 22, 2022
Rayton 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 the trial judge should have instructed the jury on voluntary manslaughter and that his lawyer provided ineffective assistance.
314 Ga. 29 FINAL COPY S22A0441. RAYTON v. THE STATE.
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · June 1, 2022
Jordan v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld Orlando Jordan's malice murder conviction in the shooting death of a neighbor, ruling the evidence was sufficient and that the trial court properly admitted testimony about a stolen dirt bike and a related burglary.
313 Ga. 841 FINAL COPY S22A0171. JORDAN v. THE STATE.
Finally, the State presented evidence that, four months prior to the murder, a police officer’s apartment was burglarized wherein the intruders stole an AK-47 and multiple containers of ammunition, including nine Wolf brand 7.62-caliber cartridges. The parties further stipulated that Jordan was a convicted felon at the time of Wiggins’ murder. Jordan argues...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · August 9, 2022
Ellington v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld Vincent Ellington's malice murder conviction in an Atlanta shooting, rejecting his claims that the evidence was insufficient and that his cross-examination of a witness was improperly limited, but sent the case back to fix a sentencing error.
reasonable dispute, . . . must have affected his substantial rights, and . . . must have seriously affected the fairness, integrity or public reputation of judicial proceedings.” McKinney, 307 Ga. at 134 (citation and punctuation omitted). “In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right . . . to be confronted with the witnesses against...
Narrow the results
Counts are of the documents this search found.