Justia Georgia Supreme Court Opinion Summaries

Appellant Willie Morris was found guilty of felony murder and other crimes in connection with the July 2004 shooting death of Fabian Miller. Morris appealed, arguing to the Georgia Supreme Court there were evidentiary and jury instruction errors, ineffectiveness of his trial counsel for several reasons, and that the trial court failed to properly exercise its discretion as the thirteenth juror in denying his motion for a new trial. Finding no error, the Supreme Court affirmed. View "Morris v. Georgia" on Justia Law

Appellant Marquis Tanner was convicted of malice murder and other crimes in connection with the shooting death of Abel Carmona, Jr. On appeal, he argued the evidence presented at his trial was insufficient to support his murder conviction; that he was denied his Sixth Amendment right to conflict-free counsel; and that the trial court erred by admitting into evidence a comment made by a detective during Appellant’s interrogation. Finding no reversible error, the Georgia Supreme Court affirmed his convictions. View "Tanner v. Georgia" on Justia Law

Eddieard Greene was convicted by jury of malice murder, felony murder, aggravated assault, and various other offenses in connection with the shooting deaths of Freddie Jackson and Laura Dowdy and the shooting of Kendra Hays. On appeal, Greene argued the trial court erred in allowing certain statements of one of the deceased victims, Dowdy, to be admitted into evidence at trial under the forfeiture-by-wrongdoing exception to the rule against hearsay (OCGA 24-8-804(b)(5) of Georgia’s new Evidence Code); and that the State improperly introduced fabricated evidence to secure the admission into evidence of Dowdy’s statements at trial. Finding no error, the Georgia Supreme Court affirmed. View "Greene v. Georgia" on Justia Law

Appellant Emmanuel Perez was tried before a jury and found guilty of malice murder and other crimes in the death of Armando Montez. Perez suspected that his wife was having a sexual relationship with the victim, who was also married. Perez’s wife met the victim while working at a club as a dancer. The victim worked at a tire shop, and Perez’s wife would frequently visit the shop. About a month before the shooting, Perez had in his cell phone the Spanish phrase for “the nightmare” as the name stored for his wife’s phone number, and the Spanish phrase for “the dead man” as the name stored for the victim’s phone number. A week or two prior to the shooting, Perez called the victim and confronted him with his suspicions. Perez and the victim then argued for several minutes before Perez shot the victim in the side of his head. After the victim fell to the ground, Perez continued to shoot the victim until his gun jammed. He then cleared the jam and fired an entire magazine into the victim’s body. In addition to the gunshot to the head, the victim suffered nine gunshot wounds to his neck and back, and died from his injuries. On appeal, Perez argued the trial court erred in admitting a hearsay statement from the deceased victim. Finding no error, the Georgia Supreme Court affirmed. View "Perez v. Georgia" on Justia Law

The Georgia Supreme Court granted certiorari to the Court of Appeals in Georgia v. Walsh, 795 SE2d 202 (2016), to determine whether the Court of Appeals erred in reversing the trial court’s grant of James Walsh’s motion to suppress the results of a horizontal gaze nystagmus (“HGN”) test conducted on him in connection with his arrest and charges for driving under the influence of alcohol to the extent that it was less safe for him to drive and other traffic offenses. Finding that the Court of Appeals did so err, the Supreme Court reversed the judgment of that Court. View "Walsh v. Georgia" on Justia Law

The Georgia Supreme Court granted certiorari in this case to examine whether the Court of Appeals improperly construed OCGA 16-11-135(e), which was part of the Business Security and Employee Privacy Act, as granting immunity “from firearm-related tort liability” to an employer who was sued for liability for the allegedly negligent acts of its employee under the theory of respondeat superior, and for the employer’s alleged negligent supervision. Appellant Claude Lucas sued appellee Beckman Coulter, Inc. (“BCI”) along with BCI’s employee Jeremy Wilson for injuries Lucas suffered when Wilson accidentally shot Lucas with a handgun. The accident occurred while Wilson was on the premises of BCI’s customer where he had driven his employer-owned vehicle to make a service call. In apparent violation of BCI’s policy prohibiting employees from transporting firearms while on company business, Wilson had taken a firearm with him on this service call. When he learned that a number of vehicles in the customer’s parking lot had been vandalized in recent days, he removed his gun from the vehicle and took it inside, where he accidentally fired it, injuring Lucas. Lucas filed his complaint, and following discovery, BCI filed a motion for summary judgment. The trial court granted the motion for summary judgment on three grounds: (1) that Wilson’s choice to take his firearm onto the client’s property was not within the scope of Wilson’s employment, and therefore BCI is not liable for these actions under a theory of respondeat superior; (2) that Lucas explicitly abandoned his claims for BCI’s negligent supervision; and (3) that OCGA 16-11-135(e) barred Lucas’s claims against BCI. The Supreme Court reversed the Court of Appeals’ decision. On remand, the Court of Appeals was instructed to address Lucas’s assertion that the trial court erred in granting summary judgment to BCI on his claims of liability under respondeat superior and for negligent supervision. View "Lucas v. Beckman Coulter, Inc." on Justia Law

Companion appeals raised questions about when a jury considering a medical malpractice case might also be instructed on issues of ordinary negligence. Sterling Brown Sr. sued the defendant medical centers and medical professionals individually and on behalf of his wife, Gwendolyn Brown, after she suffered catastrophic brain damage, allegedly from oxygen deprivation while undergoing a procedure to relieve back pain. Mrs. Brown died while this suit was pending, and the complaint was amended to add a wrongful death claim. A trial in which the court instructed the jury on both ordinary negligence and medical malpractice resulted in an award of nearly $22 million. A divided Court of Appeals affirmed. The Georgia Supreme Court granted the defendants’ petitions for certiorari to consider their argument that the Court of Appeals erred by concluding that the evidence supported a claim of ordinary negligence. "The plaintiffs’ case of medical malpractice was very strong. But a very strong case of medical malpractice does not become a case of ordinary negligence simply due to the egregiousness of the medical malpractice." The Supreme Court concluded the Court of Appeals erred in concluding that an ordinary negligence instruction was authorized by evidence that a doctor defendant responded inadequately to medical data provided by certain medical equipment during a medical procedure. Because the verdict was a general one such that the Court could not determine that the jury did not rely on this erroneous theory of liability, it reversed with instructions that the Court of Appeals on remand order a full retrial as to defendants. View "Southeastern Pain Specialists, P.C. v. Brown" on Justia Law

Appellant Johnathan McCoy was convicted of felony murder and associated offenses in connection with the shooting death of LaShawn Beasley. On appeal, McCoy argued that he was improperly sentenced and that he received ineffective assistance of counsel. The Georgia Supreme Court agreed McCoy was erroneously sentenced; otherwise the Court affirmed McCoy's conviction. View "McCoy v. Georgia" on Justia Law

Appellant Johnathan McCoy was convicted of felony murder and associated offenses in connection with the shooting death of LaShawn Beasley. On appeal, McCoy argued that he was improperly sentenced and that he received ineffective assistance of counsel. The Georgia Supreme Court agreed McCoy was erroneously sentenced; otherwise the Court affirmed McCoy's conviction. View "McCoy v. Georgia" on Justia Law

Dequontist Lucas was tried by jury and convicted of murder, armed robbery, and other crimes in connection with the fatal shooting of Samuel Steward and the wounding of Demarco Tyler. Lucas appealed, claiming the trial court erred when it limited his cross-examination of two witnesses for the prosecution. The Georgia Supreme Court found no merit in these claims and affirmed. View "Lucas v. Georgia" on Justia Law