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Found 75 matching documents.
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · June 30, 2022
McIver v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia reversed Tex McIver's felony murder conviction in the shooting death of his wife Diane, ruling the trial judge should have let jurors consider a lesser misdemeanor manslaughter charge.
A review of selected cases on involuntary manslaughter provides some guidance for determining whether there is slight evidence of the commission of a lawful act in an unlawful manner to support an instruction on OCGA § 16-5-3 (b). For example, if the uncontradicted evidence shows that the defendant was not in lawful possession of the weapon that caused the...
of recklessness in their analysis of unlawful manner involuntary manslaughter. For example, in Drake v. State, 221 Ga. 347 (144 SE2d 519) (1965), the appellant shot and killed the victim in the woods of north Georgia. The appellant told the investigating officers that he was deer hunting but shot at what he thought was a fox in the mist or fog. While the...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · September 20, 2022
Jones v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia affirmed a man's murder conviction for a fatal 2015 shooting in Augusta, ruling that a shotgun shell found in his back yard was properly seized while officers executed a valid arrest warrant.
Nevertheless, the undisputed evidence also demonstrates that, at the time the officers went to execute the arrest warrant, they did not have a search warrant for Appellant’s residence. “The Fourth Amendment [to the United States Constitution] proscribes all unreasonable searches and seizures, and searches conducted without prior judicial approval are per se...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · June 30, 2022
In the Matter of Daniel Kirkland McCall
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia rejected an attorney's proposed six-month suspension for neglecting three clients, ruling that his mitigating claims, unpaid refund, and proposed reinstatement conditions did not support accepting the deal as offered.
McCall states that while he recognizes the seriousness of this matter and takes full responsibility for his actions and inactions, he believes that a six-month suspension, nunc pro tunc to May 13, 2019, is appropriate here where all of the conduct in the Bar complaints occurred during the time in which he was in the midst of a psychotic episode and was...
The Bar has filed a response in which it agrees with the underlying facts and particular rule violations. As for aggravating factors, the Bar concludes that McCall had a dishonest or selfish motive, see ABA Standard 9.22 (a), because rather than explain that he had a health concern and was unable to provide legal representation, he avoided communicating...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · February 1, 2022
Brennan v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld a woman's felony murder conviction for the scalding death of her young stepdaughter, ruling that a private plea-negotiation conference and a judge's brief comment to a detective did not violate her rights.
While leaving Fort Stewart, Madron was pulled over by the military police for using her cell phone while driving. Madron explained the situation concerning Harris to the military police officer and requested the U. S. Army Criminal Investigation Division (“CID”) be sent to the hospital to investigate. The military police officer told Madron that she would...
contact with her bio[logical] mother,”2 Harris “acts out” by biting her nails and pulling her hair out. A military police officer also spoke with Appellant at the hospital, and he testified that he had not observed any burns on Appellant’s hands or arms that night. Sometime that evening, Harris was transported to an Augusta hospital for more specialized...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · October 4, 2022
In the Matter of Trent Lee Coggins
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia accepted a Valdosta lawyer's petition for a six-month suspension over trust account violations, retroactive to when he stopped practicing, and reinstated him immediately because the suspension period had already passed.
PER CURIAM. This disciplinary matter is before the Court on the report and recommendation of Special Master Jack J. Helms, Jr., who recommends that the Court accept the petition for voluntary discipline filed by respondent Trent Lee Coggins (State Bar No. 173299) pursuant to Bar Rule 4-227 (c) after the filing of a formal complaint. Coggins asks that the...
Here, the Special Master concluded that Coggins’s misconduct, although certainly serious, was mitigated by a number of considerations that tended to offset or deemphasize the aggravating factors, including his restitution, general acceptance of responsibility, remorse, and lack of any prior disciplinary history. Thus, the Special Master determined that a...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · March 8, 2022
Junior v. Graham
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia ruled that a car accident victim can collect attorney fees and litigation expenses under two separate Georgia laws without one recovery canceling out the other, reversing the Court of Appeals of Georgia.
2. (a) In interpreting OCGA §§ 9-11-68 (b) (2) and 13-6-11, we must presume that the General Assembly meant what it said and said what it meant. To that end, we must afford the statutory text its plain and ordinary meaning, we must view the statutory text in the context in which it appears, and we must read the statutory text in its most natural and...
OCGA §§ 13-6-11 and 9-11-68 (b) are differently worded. . . . OCGA § 13-6-11 expressly makes its litigation expenses “part of the damages” to be awarded by the jury, and an award under OCGA § 13-6-11 must be based on conduct arising from the transaction underlying the cause of action being litigated, not conduct during the course of the litigation...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · March 8, 2022
Burns v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia ruled that 2016 changes to Georgia's grand jury notice laws for police officers are procedural, not substantive, so they applied to an Atlanta officer's 2018 indictment even though the shooting happened before the law changed.
because the trial court reached the right result, we affirm the court’s judgment. See Merchant Law Firm v. Emerson, 301 Ga. 609, 614 (1) (c) (800 SE2d 557) (2017) (affirming a trial court’s judgment as “right for any reason”). As an initial matter, we note that the framing of this case as one about the retroactive application of the 2016 amendments is...
The 2016 statutory amendments at issue here are not substantive in nature as they “create[ ] no new obligations and grant[ ] no substantive rights that did not exist before.” New Cingular, 308 Ga. at 735. Instead, the 2016 amendments merely changed the procedures for providing notice of a grand jury hearing to an accused police officer and the procedures...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · November 2, 2022
Ammons v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia ruled that police cannot use a DUI suspect's refusal to take a preliminary breath test or cooperate with field sobriety tests as evidence at trial, overruling a 29-year-old precedent. The court also rejected a separate constitutional challenge to using blood test refusals as evidence.
Search and Seizure Clause11 and Due Process Clause12 to insist that the police obtain a search warrant or satisfy some other exception to the warrant requirement before performing the test. And although our cases construing these provisions do not hold or suggest that a suspect’s refusal to consent to a blood test cannot be used against her at trial, she...
We reject this claim. As an initial matter, Ammons’s burden to establish this claim is a difficult one. We presume that statutes are constitutional, and before an act of the General Assembly can be declared unconstitutional, “the conflict between it and the fundamental law must be clear and palpable and this Court must be clearly satisfied of its...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · November 29, 2022
Eaker v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld a Cherokee County man's murder conviction, rejecting his claims that his lawyer should have pursued an accidental-gun-malfunction defense and that new evidence justified a new trial.
Eaker also points to his expert’s testimony at the motion-for- new-trial hearing that the five bullet wounds to Audra’s head “arced” “up her head” “in almost a straight line,” as well as his testimony that the three bullets that missed Audra hit the roof, sun visor, and windshield of the car, as evidence that should have alerted trial counsel to the...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · October 25, 2022
In the Matter of William D. Thompson, Jr
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia accepted an amended petition from an attorney seeking reciprocal discipline for trust account mismanagement in Florida, imposing a one-year suspension retroactive to January 2020.
certain conditions for readmission in Georgia). Thompson adds that Florida’s imposition of probation, which is unavailable in Georgia, does not preclude this Court from recognizing the one-year suspension as substantially similar, as this Court has previously approved reciprocal suspensions “without adding time for the probationary period.” In the Matter of...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · June 22, 2022
In the Matter of Sherri Len Washington
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia disbarred Atlanta-area lawyer Sherri Len Washington after she abandoned three clients' cases, failed to communicate with them, and misrepresented facts to a client and a court.
The record further shows that Washington violated Rule 1.5 in both SDBD Nos. 7445 and 7446 because she collected a fee that was unreasonable in light of the fact that she did no work in either case and because in SDBD No. 7445 she failed to communicate a basis for her fee to her client or his family. Finally, we agree that Washington violated Rule 1.16 in...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · March 8, 2022
McEntyre v. Sams East, Inc
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia ruled that anyone who helps load a vehicle, not just the driver, has a legal duty to securely fasten the load, and can be sued for negligence if that duty is broken and someone is hurt as a result.
(b) No person shall operate or load for operation, on any public road, any vehicle with any load unless such load and any covering thereon is securely fastened so as to prevent such covering or load from: (1) Becoming loose, detached, or in any manner becoming a hazard to other users of the public road[.] In considering the meaning of this statute, we must...
The question posed by the district court assumes that the person assisting with the loading is not also the operator of the vehicle. The phrase “[n]o person shall . . . load for operation” does not limit the duty imposed by the statute to secure a load and any covering thereon to the operator of the vehicle or a person primarily responsible for loading. “No...
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.
As discussed above, in the Barnhills’ motion attacking the constitutionality of OCGA § 19-7-3 (c) (1), (c) (3), and (c) (5), the Barnhills argue that these paragraphs are unconstitutional on their face because they: (1) ignore the best interests of the child; (2) violate the fundamental right of parents to make decisions concerning the care, custody, and...
OCGA § 19-7-3 (c) (1) provides in pertinent part that the court may grant any family member of the child reasonable visitation rights if the court finds by clear and convincing evidence that the health or welfare of the child would be harmed unless such visitation is granted and if the best interests of the child would be served by such visitation. The mere...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · June 22, 2022
In the Matter of Edward Hine, Jr
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia rejected a longtime attorney's request for a six-month suspension over admitted misuse of estate client funds, finding his disclosed misconduct alone could warrant disbarment and that he had left out related misconduct involving a separate trust.
Hine acknowledges that he violated Rule 1.4 and Rule 1.8 (a) and (b) by failing to communicate with, and to seek the approval of, the estate’s beneficiaries before advancing funds to his operating account and that he violated Rule 1.15 (I) (a) and Rule 1.15 (II) (b) by depositing estate funds into his operating account. Hine asserts that a suspension would...
Furthermore, it is noteworthy that Hine’s treatment of the estate matter contains no mention of the fact that he overcharged the estate’s beneficiaries by more than $15,000 in fees. He appears to have refunded the overcharged fees to the beneficiaries, but, from a letter to the beneficiaries that Hine attached to his aforementioned letter to the Bar, it...
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.
1. Background (a) Factual Background Viewing the evidentiary record in the light most favorable to the factual findings and to the judgment of the trial court, see Walker v. State, 312 Ga. 332, 336 (862 SE2d 542) (2021), the evidence shows the following. On October 23, 2017, when Burton was 16 years old, he was taken into custody for a murder that occurred...
sufficiently ambiguous to warrant a follow[-]up response from Detective Dobbs.” However, after Detective Ross testified, the trial court said: “I’m going to state . . . for the record now that it seems to me like the detective’s comments on what he heard on the video is based entirely or almost entirely on his listening to it this afternoon . . . on...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · June 22, 2022
In the Matter of Donald Francis Hawbaker
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia accepted the voluntary surrender of law license from a Spalding County attorney who pleaded guilty to five felony counts of aggravated assault on a peace officer, a step equivalent to disbarment.
314 Ga. 77 FINAL COPY S22Y0718. IN THE MATTER OF DONALD FRANCIS HAWBAKER.
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · September 7, 2022
In the Matter of Andrew Matteson
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia rejected an attorney's request to accept a three- to six-month suspension for mishandling client funds and abandoning cases, because he gave the court no proof of his mental health claims or that he had made his clients whole.
3 Rule 1.15 (I) (c) provides that, upon receiving funds in which a client has an interest, a lawyer shall promptly notify the client and deliver that portion of the funds which the client is entitled to receive. 4 Rule 1.16 (a) (2) provides that a lawyer shall withdraw from representation of a client if the lawyer’s physical or mental condition materially...
The State Bar has filed a response, stating that Matteson’s petition contains admissions of fact and conduct sufficient to authorize the imposition of the discipline he has requested and that the discipline Matteson requests is sufficient to serve as “a penalty to the offender, a deterrent to others and [ ] an indication to laymen that the courts will...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · March 15, 2022
Rutledge v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia ruled that a man who pled guilty to murder could not ask a trial court for an out-of-time appeal, because such motions no longer have any legal basis in Georgia courts. His case was sent back so the trial court can dismiss it rather than rule on its merits.
313 Ga. 460 FINAL COPY S21A1036. RUTLEDGE v. THE STATE.
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · May 17, 2022
McNabb v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld Christopher McNabb's murder conviction in the death of his infant daughter, finding the circumstantial evidence enough to support the verdict and rejecting claims his trial lawyer botched the case.
not objecting to such evidence, but those claims do not affect our assessment of the sufficiency of the evidence. When we consider the legal sufficiency of the evidence, we consider all the evidence presented at trial without regard to whether some of that evidence might have been improperly admitted. See Virger v. State, 305 Ga. 281, 286 (2) n.3 (824 SE2d...
The record also showed that McNabb’s trial counsel referred to McNabb’s drug use in his opening statement and closing argument. Counsel did so in the context of arguing to the jury that McNabb’s drug use and his heavily tattooed appearance were reasons he became the prime suspect in the case. As we have discussed, “[r]easonable trial strategy and tactics do...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · May 3, 2022
Harris v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld Jordan Robert Harris's felony murder conviction for a 2010 store robbery shooting, rejecting his claims about weak evidence, faulty eyewitness identification, and mishandled prior-crime testimony.
(b) Harris next argues that the evidence was insufficient to sustain his felony murder conviction because the State did not prove a nexus between the shooting and Phelps’s death from blood clots. We disagree. A person commits felony murder when, “in the commission of a felony, he or she causes the death of another human being irrespective of malice.” OCGA §...
Here, the evidence showed that Phelps developed blood clots only after Harris shot him in the torso. The doctor who treated Phelps’s life-threatening wounds stated that Phelps appeared to be otherwise healthy and showed no signs of blood clots. The medical examiner testified that Phelps’s death was caused by blood clots resulting from his gunshot wound. She...
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