Justia Georgia Supreme Court Opinion Summaries

Appellant Martin Holmes appealed his convictions from a multi-victim crime spree which included the shooting death of Rickey Gibson. Holmes was indicted for armed robbery, aggravated assault, kidnapping, malice murder, felony murder, possessing a firearm during the commission of a crime, hijacking a motor vehicle, and possessing marijuana. Holmes raised a number of alleged errors at trial that warranted overturning his convictions or in the alternative, granting him a new trial. Finding no reversible error, the Georgia Supreme Court affirmed his convictions. View "Holmes v. Georgia" on Justia Law

In 2004, appellant Prentiss Jackson entered a negotiated guilty plea to one count of statutory rape, registered with the sexual offender registry, and listed an address in Houston County. He was made aware of the requirement to update his registration information within 72 hours prior to any change of address. Nevertheless, in 2011, he moved to Bibb County without registering his new address within the required period of time. He was indicted, and the caption of the one-count indictment read: “Failure to register as a sex offender.” Jackson was ultimately convicted by jury and sentenced to 30 years, serving six in prison with the remainder on probation. Jackson appealed, arguing primarily that the indictment against him was insufficient. The Court of Appeals found no error and affirmed the conviction. The Georgia Supreme Court disagreed that the indictment was sufficient to withstand a general demurrer, and was deficient and void. Consequently, Jackson’s conviction was reversed. View "Jackson v. Georgia" on Justia Law

The Georgia Supreme Court granted this interlocutory appeal to address whether the former version of OCGA 16-11-37(a), Georgia’s Terroristic Threats statute, was unconstitutionally overbroad and vague. Appellant Devon Major posted a statement to his Facebook page, ending with “Lord, please save me before, o (sic) get the chopper out and make Columbine look childish.” Shortly after the statement was published, a resource officer at Major’s school saw the post and contacted law enforcement. Officers then contacted Major who admitted posting the statement. He was arrested and indicted for threatening to commit a crime of violence against another “in reckless disregard of causing such terror” in violation of OCGA 16-11-37. Major filed an application for interlocutory appeal, which the Georgia Supreme Court granted, inquiring as to whether the statute was unconstitutionally void for vagueness and overbreadth because it permitted conviction based on recklessness. Based on the evidence in the record before it, the Supreme Court found the statute had not been unconstitutionally applied to Major. View "Major v. Georgia" on Justia Law

Mark Adkins was convicted by jury for crimes related to the murder of Frederick Early, and the non-fatal shootings of Briona Moor and Pamphylia Baynes. Adkins appealed, arguing the trial court erred by: (1) permitting the State to introduce a purported dying declaration by Early; (2) permitting the State to elicit improper opinion testimony by two law enforcement officers; and (3) failing to merge two aggravated assault convictions that were both based on the shooting of Baynes. The Georgia Supreme Court vacated in part because the trial court should have merged the two aggravated assault convictions. But the Court otherwise affirmed because Adkins introduced the evidence of Early’s statement and because the admission of the challenged law enforcement testimony was either not error or, at worst, harmless error. View "Adkins v. Georgia" on Justia Law

Anthony Veal challenged his convictions for numerous crimes, including malice murder, committed in the course of an armed bank robbery. Veal argued that the trial court erred in failing to strike for cause potential and actual jurors who knew the murder victim or had a business relationship with the bank where the crimes occurred and that his counsel was ineffective for failing to move to strike the jurors for cause. Veal also argued that his due process rights were violated by the trial court’s failure to rule on his motion for new trial for over 17 years, and that his trial counsel was ineffective for failing to pursue post-conviction relief in a timely fashion. The Georgia Supreme Court found Veal did not preserve his argument that the challenged jurors were disqualified from serving as a matter of law, and trial counsel was not ineffective because a motion to strike on the only basis Veal asserts would have been meritless. Because Veal has failed to demonstrate that he was prejudiced by any post-conviction delay, his due process and ineffective assistance of counsel claims related to the delay also fail. Accordingly, the Supreme Court affirmed Veal’s convictions. View "Veal v. Georgia" on Justia Law

Jeffrey McGee appealed the denial of his motion in arrest of judgment, which McGee filed nearly fifteen years after having pled guilty to malice murder, aggravated battery, and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon in connection with the shooting death of police officer Robbie Bishop. McGee claimed his original plea agreement was invalid based on the trial court having originally sentenced him for both malice murder and aggravated battery. The Georgia Supreme Court determined McGee’s motion was untimely, whether considered as a motion to withdraw his guilty plea or as a motion in arrest of judgment. Both sorts of motions must be filed within the same term of court at which the guilty plea or judgment being challenged was entered. View "McGee v. Georgia" on Justia Law

Otis Ricks was indicted along with three other men for murder, armed robbery, criminal street gang activity, and related crimes in connection with the 2012 shooting death of Vanessa Thrasher at a lounge in Atlanta. The State notified Ricks it intended to seek the death penalty for Ricks and at least one of his co-defendants, Demario Carman. The defendants’ cases were severed for trial, although some of Ricks’s and Carman’s pretrial proceedings were conducted jointly. During the pretrial proceedings, Carman filed a motion asking the trial court to issue an order declaring Fulton County’s method of selecting trial jurors to be in violation of the Georgia Supreme Court’s Jury Composition Rule and directing that his jury be selected in a manner not violating the Rule. The trial court applied to the Supreme Court for review, asking whether it erred in denying Rick’s claim that the list from which the jurors were summoned was produced in a manner that violated the Jury Composition Rule. The Supreme Court concluded the trial court indeed did so err, and reversed and remanded for jury selection in a manner that complies with the Rule. View "Ricks v. Georgia" on Justia Law

Appellant Travis Rabon was tried and convicted of numerous offenses in connection with the 2008 murder of Keira Avant and the rape of a second victim. Rabon appealed, claiming three instances of trial court error: (1) for denying his request for money for investigators; (2) for denying his request for experts; and (3) denying his request for a continuance. Finding no error, the Georgia Supreme Court affirmed Rabon’s convictions. View "Rabon v. Georgia" on Justia Law

In 2009, Nicholas Johnson was indicted for shooting Tremaine Cobb in a Waffle House parking lot. A jury found Johnson guilty of felony murder and two counts of aggravated assault, and Johnson appealed, arguing there was insufficient evidence to support his convictions for felony murder and aggravated assault, that the trial court erred by refusing to sever Johnson’s trial from a co-defendant’s trial, and that the trial court abused its discretion in denying the jury’s request to view, during deliberations, surveillance video of the shooting that was admitted as evidence and shown during the trial. Finding no merit in these enumerated errors, the Georgia Supreme Court affirmed. View "Johnson v. Georgia" on Justia Law

Following the partial denial of his motion for new trial, Nicholas Wilson appealed his convictions and sentences for malice murder and other crimes in connection with the November, 2009 robbery of Cassandra James and her fatal stabbing in December, 2009. His sole challenge on appeal was that the trial court erroneously excluded an out-of-court declaration regarding certain evidence in the case. Finding no reversible error, the Supreme Court affirmed. View "Wilson v. Georgia" on Justia Law