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Found 318 matching passages in 159 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.
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...
2. The Barker framework A constitutional speedy-trial claim is evaluated under the two- part framework set out in Barker. See Redding I, 309 Ga. at 128 (3). First, the trial court must consider “whether the length of time between the defendant’s arrest and trial is sufficiently long to be considered ‘presumptively prejudicial.’ If not, the speedy-trial...
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...
objections after the trial court’s charge, which lacked any instruction on affirmative defenses, self-defense, or justification. Immediately after the trial court denied his supplemental request, Harris’s counsel said that he had been negligent in failing to watch the videotaped interviews of Favors and Julius Martin (a co-defendant of Harris and Favors in...
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...
313 Ga. 451 FINAL COPY S22A0289. HOOPER v. THE STATE.
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 · 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...
14 In Cobbledick, the United States Supreme Court concluded that where a non-party witness was not permitted to immediately appeal an interlocutory order of a trial court, the witness could either await final judgment for the trial court’s order to be reviewed by the appellate court, or “[l]et the court go further, and punish the witness for contempt of its...
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 · 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...
10 Contending that the trial court erred in ruling that the State failed to meet its burden of showing that Burton waived his rights under Miranda, the State cites a litany of cases in which this Court and the Court of Appeals have held that juveniles knowingly and voluntarily waived their rights. See, e.g., Allen v. State, 283 Ga. 304, 305-306 (658 SE2d...
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.
Terrell testified on his own behalf at trial and admitted that he went to the house that evening “to get answers” after a group had broken into and “trashed” his apartment. However, Terrell claimed that Stallings was standing in the doorway with a gun and that Stallings first raised the gun and shot toward him.3 Terrell responded with two or three shots...
We begin our analysis by setting out the four factors relevant to a due process claim premised on appellate delay: (1) the length of the delay; (2) the reason for the delay; (3) the defendant’s assertion of his right; and (4) prejudice to the defendant. See Dawson v. State, 308 Ga. 613, 623 (4) (842 SE2d 875) (2020). In the context of appellate delay,...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · May 17, 2022
Washington v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld a Gwinnett County man's murder conviction, rejecting claims that his trial lawyer was ineffective and that he was wrongly excluded from a discussion about which exhibits would go to the jury room.
(b) Appellant argues that his right to a trial by jury was violated when the jury was allowed to deliberate without all of the evidence in the jury room. Appellant asserts that his counsel made “repeated request[s] for the firearm to go back with the jury for deliberation, [but] the trial court refused.” That is not what happened. Appellant’s counsel merely...
(c) Appellant argues that his state constitutional right to be 7 Appellant raises no claim of ineffective assistance of trial counsel related to this issue. present during trial proceedings was violated when the trial court conducted a “hearing” on exhibits going to the jury room after Appellant had been escorted out of the courtroom. This Court has held...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · March 8, 2022
Daniels v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld a 14-year-old's murder conviction, ruling that his confessions to police after hours of questioning were properly admitted because he knowingly and voluntarily waived his Miranda rights.
(a) Daniels first argues that his statements to the police should have been excluded because the officers who arrested and interviewed him did not comply with OCGA § 15-11-502 (a) (3). That section of the Juvenile Code provides, in relevant part: A person taking an alleged delinquent child into custody, with all reasonable speed and without first taking...
First, there must be an error or defect — some sort of deviation from a legal rule — that has not been intentionally relinquished or abandoned, i.e., affirmatively waived, by the appellant. Second, the legal error must be clear or obvious, rather than subject to reasonable dispute. Third, the error must have affected the appellant’s substantial rights,...
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.
transitioning from jail into the state penitentiary system and through the diagnostic and classification process, manages either to obtain new counsel or to have his right to self-representation formally restored to him under Faretta v. California, 422 U. S. 806, 818-821 (III) (A) (95 SCt 2525, 45 LE2d 562) (1975), so that his pro se filings will not be...
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...
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 · August 23, 2022
Prickett v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld Santron Prickett's convictions in the shooting death of Antwan Curry, rejecting claims of ineffective counsel and violated presence rights, but sent the case back because the trial court imposed two life sentences for what should have been one felony murder conviction.
2. Prickett next asserts that the trial court erred in denying his motion for new trial because the court violated his constitutional right to be present at all critical stages of his trial by conferring with counsel out of Prickett’s presence 26 times during bench conferences.4 4 Although Prickett references the right to be present under the federal...
Moreover, a defendant may waive the constitutional right to be present. We have held under the Georgia Constitution that the right to be present belongs to the defendant, and he is free to relinquish it if he so chooses. A defendant may relinquish his right in several ways: if he personally waives the right in court; if his counsel waives the right at his...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · June 22, 2022
Jones v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia reversed the murder convictions of two men because the trial judge removed a dissenting juror during deliberations without making findings strong enough to justify the removal.
This Court also has held that good cause to remove a selected juror who has reached a “fixed and definite” opinion of guilt or innocence can be established after jury selection, before the start of deliberations. See Butler v. State, 290 Ga. 412, 417-418 (5) (721 SE2d 876) (2012). Indeed, a juror or prospective juror who holds a fixed opinion about guilt or...
Georgia law does not require a juror who has properly reached a fixed opinion as to guilt or innocence to continue to deliberate 15 The dissent agrees with this disapproval while still relying on Bethea as support for its conclusion. But only the now-disapproved reading of Bethea supports the dissent. indefinitely in order to fulfill the juror’s duty. See...
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...
34 I thank the Georgia Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers for its excellent amicus brief bringing this point to my attention. That brief also suggests that a 1986 amendment to a Title 40 statute applied limitations to seeking habeas relief from certain traffic convictions. See Ga. L. 1986, p. 444, § 1. The actual effect of the 1986 provision is not...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · December 20, 2022
Smith v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia ruled that a Gwinnett County man convicted of murdering his infant son is entitled to a hearing on his claim that new medical science undermines the shaken baby diagnosis used against him at trial.
Smith’s extraordinary motion said that a major shift in the medical community’s thinking began in 2006 when the National Association of Medical Examiners withdrew a position paper endorsing the “triad” as diagnostic of SBS. The medical community increasingly began to accept the idea that the “triad” of symptoms once considered diagnostic of SBS may also be...
The expert affidavit attached to Smith’s motion was provided by the chair of neurosurgery at Mount Sinai West and Mount Sinai Morningside, Dr. Saadi Ghatan, opining that the cause of Chandler’s death was pre-existing conditions resulting from birth injury and other events, and not from SBS. In his affidavit, Dr. Ghatan cited several ways in which the...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · May 3, 2022
Butler v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld Cory Butler's malice murder conviction for a home invasion that killed Epsie Ewing, rejecting his claims about insufficient evidence, an invalid jury trial waiver, and ineffective legal help.
And although Butler points to Dr. Stevens as supporting Butler’s defense theory that he did not cause Mrs. Ewing’s death, Dr. Stevens’ testimony undermines, rather than supports, Butler’s claim. That is because Dr. Stevens testified that it was “likely” that Mrs. Ewing’s preexisting medical conditions, “combined” with the blunt-force trauma she suffered...
Here, the record shows that the State initially sought the death penalty in this case, filing a notice of intent (and later an amended notice) to seek the death penalty. On March 13, 2013, Butler and the State entered into a consent agreement, signed by both parties, whereby the State withdrew its notice of intent to seek the death penalty and Butler waived...
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