Owens v. Georgia

Appellant Margie Owens was found guilty of voluntary manslaughter as a lesser offense of malice murder, felony murder based on aggravated assault, and possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime, all in connection with the shooting death of her husband, Randall Owens. In June 1998, the trial court sentenced Appellant to serve life in prison for felony murder and a consecutive term of five years on the firearm count; the court merged the voluntary manslaughter verdict into the felony murder conviction. It then took 19 years for her motion for new trial to be decided and her notice of appeal and the record in the case transmitted to the Georgia Supreme Court. In this appeal, Appellant contended her trial counsel provided ineffective assistance and that her conviction and sentence for felony murder instead of voluntary manslaughter violated the modified merger rule the Georgia Supreme Court adopted in Edge v. Georgia, 414 SE2d 463 (1992). The Supreme Court found Appellant failed to show ineffective assistance of counsel, but she was correct that her conviction and sentence for felony murder violated the modified merger rule. Accordingly, the Court affirmed Appellant’s conviction and sentence on the firearm count, vacated her conviction and sentence for felony murder, and remanded the case to the trial court with direction to enter a conviction and sentence for voluntary manslaughter. View "Owens v. Georgia" on Justia Law