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Found 419 matching passages in 177 documents.
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · February 20, 2024
WOODS v. BARNES (Two Cases)
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia ruled that Fannin County teachers cannot use the state's Impairment Clause to challenge the loss of job protections that came when their school system converted to a charter system, because those protections had already been limited by a 1993 law long before the conversion.
of the 1993 Charter Schools Act, it clarified that charter schools were exempt from Title 20’s requirements, including any requirements that might otherwise be imposed on public schools by the FDA. Thus, even assuming that the FDA granted teachers who accepted a fourth consecutive school year contract from the same local board unqualified rights to the...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · February 20, 2024
Floyd v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia reversed a Newton County man's felony murder conviction because his trial lawyer failed to tell jurors that Georgia law lets a felon use a gun in self-defense, even though he is barred from possessing one.
7 Appellant does not challenge the legal sufficiency of the evidence supporting his conviction for felony murder and does not challenge his other convictions. However, we address the sufficiency of the evidence of the conviction for felony murder predicated on felon-in-possession because this issue affects the ability of the State to retry him. See Heard v....
LAGRUA, Justice, concurring. I agree with the majority opinion that our prior cases on ineffective assistance of counsel and felony murder require reversal here, so I concur. Under OCGA § 16-11-138, Appellant indeed had an absolute defense to felony murder predicated on possession of a 16 We express no opinion as to whether the State may reindict Appellant...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · October 31, 2024
WILLIAMS, CONGRESSWOMAN v. POWELL
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld a state law that makes it a crime to disrupt General Assembly sessions and meetings, rejecting claims that the law is unconstitutionally vague or so broad it sweeps in protected speech.
to the statute’s plainly legitimate sweep.’” Id. at 447 (quoting Broadrick, 413 U. S. at 615). See also Scott, 299 Ga. at 577 (3) (“Invalidation for overbreadth is strong medicine that is not to be casually employed.” (citation and punctuation omitted)). In Fielden, we concluded that “the literal language” of OCGA § 16-11-34 (a) criminalizes [a]ny...
10 See Fielden, 280 Ga. at 448 (“This Court may construe statutes to avoid absurd results and has the authority to narrow a statute to avoid unconstitutional infirmities. However, under our system of separation of powers this Court does not have the authority to rewrite statutes. . . . Curing the overbreadth in OCGA § 16-11-34 (a) would be less a matter of...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · February 20, 2024
Blash v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld Demarcus Blash's murder convictions for the killings of a Dodge County couple during a home invasion, but ordered two of his sentences erased because they should have been merged into other convictions.
(b) Nevertheless, Appellant cannot waive a voidness objection by failing to object at trial, so this Court will address Appellant’s arguments to the extent that he challenges the voidness of his sentences. See Marshall v. State, 309 Ga. 698, 702-703 (848 SE2d 389) (2020). Appellant’s sentences are not void because they fall within the statutory punishment...
Moreover, we possess inherent power to protect our own jurisdiction. See Ga. Const. of 1983, Art. VI, Sec. I, Par. I (providing that “[t]he judicial power of the state shall be vested” in this Court, among others); OCGA § 15-1-1 (stating that “[t]he judicial power is vested in such tribunals as are created by the Constitution of this state”). See also...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · April 16, 2024
Stroud v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld Richard Stroud Jr.'s felony murder and firearm possession convictions in the shooting death of Frederick Cade, finding the evidence was enough to convict him whether as the shooter or as a participant in the fatal confrontation.
The medical examiner who performed the autopsy on Cade’s body testified that it appeared likely that a single bullet entered and exited his right arm, then re-entered his right torso where it struck a rib, his right lung, and ultimately his heart, resulting in massive hemorrhaging and death. However, the medical examiner did not rule out the possibility...
OCGA § 16-2-20 (a) provides that “[e]very person concerned in the commission of a crime is a party thereto and may be charged with and convicted of commission of the crime.” To obtain a conviction of a person as a party to the crime, the State must prove “that he intentionally aided or abetted in the commission of the crimes or intentionally advised,...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · April 16, 2024
Milton v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld a Wilkes County man's murder conviction, ruling that the jury heard enough evidence to find him guilty either as the shooter or as a participant in a fatal beating.
the crimes of which he was convicted.” Kirkland v. State, 318 Ga. 639, 659 (8) (898 SE2d 536) (2024). See also Jackson, 443 U.S. at 319 (III) (B); Fitts v. State, 312 Ga. 134, 141 (3) (859 SE2d 79) (2021). “This limited review leaves to the jury the resolution of conflicts in the evidence, the weight of the evidence, the credibility of witnesses, and...
Moreover, “[e]very person concerned in the commission of a crime is a party thereto and may be charged with and convicted of commission of the crime.” OCGA § 16-2-20 (a). To obtain a conviction of a person as a party to the crime, the State must prove “that he intentionally aided or abetted in the commission of the crimes or intentionally advised,...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · October 31, 2024
Miller v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld Bryan Miller's murder conviction, ruling that evidence of two earlier violent incidents with his wife was properly used to show a pattern in their relationship, despite Miller's claim that he shot her in self-defense.
Ladies and gentlemen, with respect to the following testimony, sometimes evidence is admitted for a limited purpose. Such evidence may be considered by the jury for the sole issue or purpose for which the evidence is limited and not for any other purpose. In order to prove its case, the State may prove motive. To do so, the State has offered evidence of...
Regarding this incident, Miller testified at trial that he and Gracie had been “having an argument” and “kind of fussing,” and that ultimately his wife threw a cup of bleach in his face. He testified that a friend of his called the police on his behalf, over his objection, to report the bleach attack. But when police arrived, they took Miller into custody,...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · October 22, 2024
MOORE v. WHITE, WARDEN
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia reversed the denial of habeas relief to a man convicted of first-degree burglary, agreeing with the state that his appellate lawyer should have challenged the indictment for failing to allege he entered a dwelling.
A person commits the offense of burglary in the first degree when, without authority and with the intent to commit a felony or theft therein, he or she enters or remains within an occupied, unoccupied, or vacant dwelling house of another or any building, vehicle, railroad car, watercraft, aircraft, or other such structure designed for use as the dwelling of...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · October 22, 2024
CAMPBELL v. THE STATE (Four Cases)
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld the murder and gang convictions of four Chatham County men, finding that although the trial court made a couple of errors in admitting evidence and instructing the jury, those errors did not affect the verdicts.
29 “A person commits the offense of murder when he unlawfully and with malice aforethought, either express or implied, causes the death of another human being.” OCGA § 16-5-1 (a). 30 “A person commits the offense of conspiracy to commit a crime when he together with one or more persons conspires to commit any crime and any one or more of such persons does...
In the final jury instructions, the trial court explained to the jury that “[i]n jury trials, the lawyers of the parties submit their requests to charge. And they’re required to do that by a Uniform Superior Court Rule. And all of them did so.” The court also explained: “An affirmative defense is a defense that admits the doing of the act charged, but seeks...
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.
1 The incident occurred late at night on July 15, 2018, and Appellant was arrested either on July 15, 2018, or very early in the morning on July 16, 2018. On October 17, 2018, Appellant was indicted by a Madison County grand jury for a “peeping Tom” violation pursuant to OCGA § 16-11-61 (Count 1), invasion of privacy in violation of OCGA § 16-11-62 (Count...
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...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · March 5, 2024
Jennings v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld Savanna Jennings's murder conviction for helping orchestrate the killing of her grandfather, rejecting her claims about improper evidence and ineffective defense lawyering.
The evidence presented at trial showed that William Peterson shot Perrin, and Jennings was a party to the crime because she intentionally aided or abetted Peterson in the shooting or she intentionally advised, encouraged, hired, counseled, or procured Peterson to commit the crime. See OCGA § 16-2-20 (b) (3) and (4). Jennings and her brother lived in...
318 Ga. 579 FINAL COPY S24A0095. JENNINGS v. THE STATE.
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · April 30, 2024
Hooks v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld a Ware County man's felony murder conviction, ruling that circumstantial evidence, including the dying victim naming his shooter's nickname, was enough for the jury to convict.
(a) We review the constitutional sufficiency of the evidence by reviewing the evidence at trial in the light most favorable to the ver- dicts to determine whether a rational trier of fact could have found the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, without weighing the evidence or resolving conflicts in testimony. See Weems v. State, 318 Ga. 98, 101 (2)...
Foster told McCorkel that “Buddha” shot him. McCorkel knew Hooks as “Buddha.” She did not know anyone else who went by the nickname “Buddha,” although she said she had “heard of other peo- ple in town with that nickname.” When Lieutenant Kylie Carter ar- rived at the scene, Foster was lying on the ground between McCor- kel’s apartment and Building 90 and...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · June 27, 2024
White v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld Erica White's murder and RICO convictions for the codeine poisoning death of her disabled two-year-old son, rejecting claims about improper evidence, severance, indictment defects, ineffective counsel, and withheld evidence.
Here, Count 16 charged White with violating OCGA § 16-14-4 (c). The relevant subsections of OCGA § 16-14-4 provide: (a) It shall be unlawful for any person, through a pattern of racketeering activity[13] or proceeds derived 13 OCGA § 16-14-3 (4) defines “pattern of racketeering activity” as: (A) Engaging in at least two acts of racketeering activity in...
(B) Engaging in any one or more acts of domestic terrorism as described in paragraph (2) of Code Section 16-11-220 or any criminal attempt, criminal solicitation, or criminal conspiracy related thereto. “‘Racketeering activity’ means to commit, to attempt to commit, or to solicit, coerce, or intimidate another person to commit any crime which is chargeable...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · June 11, 2024
Harmon v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld Shanadore Harmon's murder conviction for fatally shooting Brittany Trantham during an argument with Jermaz Lawson, rejecting his claims of insufficient evidence and ineffective legal counsel.
4 The State introduced certified copies of Harmon’s three prior felony convictions, which were admitted into evidence during the bifurcated portion of the trial. To convict someone of aggravated assault (or deny them a di- rected verdict on that count), as relevant here, the State must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant used a deadly weapon...
7 A word about preserved hearsay objections to the admission of prior statements to police that were “consistent” with the speaker’s trial testimony but were not “prior consistent statements” within the meaning of the Evidence Code. We have evaluated whether admitting such statements was harmless error by disregarding both the inadmissible hearsay statement...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · May 29, 2024
Allen v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia reversed a man's murder conviction for beating his cousin to death, ruling the trial judge should have let the jury consider whether he acted from a sudden passion after discovering his fiancée's suspected affair.
1. The trial court properly refused to instruct the jury on voluntary manslaughter. (a) What the controlling law is OCGA § 16-5-2 (a) provides: A person commits the offense of voluntary manslaughter when he causes the death of another human being under circumstances which would otherwise be murder and if he acts solely as the result of a sudden, violent,...
According to Tia, Allen then “let it go,” and she continued her affair with Smith. According to Tia, she first had sex with Smith in February 2017, and she claimed to have sex with him on two occasions. She said she would meet Smith when Allen was asleep or at work, and they would travel from Elberton to Atlanta to be together. On the evening of March 15,...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · April 16, 2024
Henderson v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld the murder conviction of a DeKalb County man who stabbed his 15-year-old sister to death, ruling that evidence of a prior knife assault on another sister was properly admitted and that no voluntary manslaughter instruction was warranted.
In this case, in addition to malice murder, Henderson was charged in the indictment with committing an aggravated assault against Kiara by assaulting her and stabbing her with a knife, “an object which when used offensively against a person did result in serious bodily injury.” See OCGA § 16-5-21 (a) (2) (“A person commits the offense of aggravated assault...
2. Henderson contends the trial court erred in refusing to charge the jury on the offense of voluntary manslaughter. Voluntary manslaughter is the killing of another person under circumstances that would otherwise be murder when the killer “acts solely as the result of a sudden, violent, and irresistible passion resulting from serious provocation sufficient...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · December 20, 2024
Williams v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld a Coffee County woman's murder conviction, ruling the judge was not biased, the jury was properly instructed, and her lawyer's trial strategy did not amount to ineffective assistance.
(b) Accident “To succeed on an affirmative defense of accident, the defendant must show that he acted without criminal intent, was not engaged in a criminal scheme, and was not criminally negligent, that is, he did not act in a manner showing an utter disregard for the safety of others who might reasonably be expected to be injured thereby.” Mills v. State,...
3. Lastly, Williams alleges that her trial counsel rendered constitutionally ineffective assistance by withdrawing the request to charge the jury on defense of habitation because the evidence showed that she was defending her home when she accidentally shot Swinson.9 To prevail on her claim, Williams must show both that counsel’s performance was deficient...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · April 30, 2024
Huber v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld a Laurens County man's felony murder conviction for a beating that ended when his companion shot the victim, rejecting claims of insufficient evidence, ineffective counsel, and flawed jury instructions.
OCGA § 16-2-20 (a) provides that “[e]very person concerned in the commission of a crime is a party thereto and may be charged with and convicted of commission of the crime.” To obtain a conviction of a person as a party to the crime, the State must prove “that he intentionally aided or abetted in the commission of the crimes or intentionally advised,...
To show plain error, Huber “must demonstrate that the instructional error was not affirmatively waived, was obvious beyond reasonable dispute, likely affected the outcome of the proceedings, and seriously affected the fairness, integrity, or public reputation of judicial proceedings. Satisfying all four prongs of this standard is difficult, as it should...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · November 5, 2024
Pounds v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld William Pounds's malice murder conviction for killing Kendra Jackson, rejecting his claims that the evidence was insufficient, that certain testimony was wrongly admitted, and that his trial lawyer was ineffective.
The evidence at Pounds’s trial, viewed in the light most favorable to the verdicts, authorized the jury to find Pounds guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of malice murder. A person commits malice murder if “he unlawfully and with malice aforethought, either express or implied, causes the death of another human being.” OCGA § 16-5-1 (a). Among other things,...
1. The evidence presented at Pounds’s trial showed the following. Jackson and Pounds met in early 2000 and began a long- term relationship. In September 2005, Pounds met and became romantically involved with another woman, Vicinda Crawford. For the next ten years, Pounds maintained romantic relationships with both women. During that period, both women...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · November 5, 2024
In the Matter of David Carleton Head
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia disbarred Atlanta lawyer David Carleton Head after he was convicted of misdemeanor theft by conversion for taking title to an ambulance belonging to an elderly, vulnerable client.
PER CURIAM. This disciplinary matter is before the Court on the report and recommendation of Special Master LaVonda Rochelle DeWitt, which was issued after a show cause hearing pursuant to Rule 4-106 of the Georgia Rules of Professional Conduct (the “Rules”). The Special Master recommends that David Carleton Head (State Bar No. 341467), a member of the...
capacity is a felony . . . and involves moral turpitude.”). The Special Master then found that Head violated Rule 8.4 (a) (3) by virtue of his criminal conviction. The Special Master then looked to the American Bar Association’s Standards for Imposing Lawyer Sanctions (“ABA Standards”) for guidance in determining the appropriate sanction to impose in this...
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