Justia Georgia Supreme Court Opinion Summaries

In this case, the appellant, James Leon Beard III, appealed his convictions for felony murder and a firearm offense resulting from the shooting death of his wife, Angela Bishop. He contested that the trial court erred by not giving the jury a no duty to retreat instruction and by providing the jury with a sequential unanimity instruction on the lesser offense of involuntary manslaughter. He also argued that he was denied effective assistance of counsel and that the cumulative prejudice from the trial court’s errors and his trial counsel’s deficiencies warranted a new trial.The Supreme Court of Georgia disagreed with the appellant's claims. The court found that the appellant failed to demonstrate that the trial court’s failure to instruct the jury on no duty to retreat affected his substantial rights or that the court erroneously instructed the jury regarding the lesser offense, thus not showing plain error. The court also concluded that the appellant failed to show deficiency and prejudice necessary to establish ineffective assistance of counsel. Finally, the court ruled that the assumed trial court error and assumed deficiencies by trial counsel did not entitle the appellant to a new trial and affirmed the lower court's decision. View "BEARD v. THE STATE" on Justia Law

In July 2015, Christopher Reid Scoggins and co-defendant Fred Jason Charles were indicted for the murder of Stephanie Daniel and other related offenses. The jury found both defendants guilty on all counts. Scoggins was sentenced to life without parole for malice murder, plus additional time for other crimes. Scoggins appealed, arguing that the evidence was insufficient to support his convictions and that his trial counsel was ineffective for failing to request a jury instruction on concealing the death of another or hindering the apprehension of a felon.The Supreme Court of Georgia affirmed the lower court's ruling. The court held that the evidence was sufficient to sustain Scoggins' convictions. Even though it was not conclusively established which defendant shot Daniel, the court found sufficient evidence of Scoggins' involvement in the crime. This was based on the fact that Scoggins was present at the time of the shooting, fled the scene with Charles, and made no attempt to seek medical aid for Daniel, which the court viewed as an indication of shared criminal intent.Additionally, the court held that Scoggins' trial counsel was not ineffective. The court stated that neither concealing the death of another nor hindering the apprehension of a felon were included within any of the offenses with which Scoggins was charged. Therefore, it was not deficient for Scoggins' trial counsel to not request instructions on these offenses. View "SCOGGINS v. THE STATE" on Justia Law

The Supreme Court of Georgia affirmed the conviction of Roy Lee Waters for felony murder related to the shooting death of his longtime girlfriend, Melvina Dunlap. Waters appealed on the grounds that the evidence was insufficient to support his conviction, the trial court wrongly denied his motion for a new trial, and his trial counsel provided ineffective assistance by not adequately investigating his insanity defense.The court found that the jury was authorized to reject Waters’s insanity defense based on its assessment of the credibility of the witnesses and of any conflicts in the evidence, including the testimony of a forensic psychologist who evaluated Waters and determined he was criminally responsible at the time of the shooting. The court also found that the trial court did not err in denying Waters's motion for a new trial based on "general grounds".On the issue of ineffective assistance of counsel, the court found that Waters's trial counsel was not deficient for failing to further investigate the insanity defense by procuring an expert to testify about Waters’s criminal responsibility at the time of the shooting, and even assuming that counsel was deficient in failing to procure an expert to testify about the side effects of Waters’s prescription medications, Waters failed to establish prejudice. Hence, the conviction was affirmed. View "WATERS v. THE STATE" on Justia Law

In the Supreme Court of Georgia, the justices decided on the case involving Tavius Bates, Octavious Jordan, and Jeremy Southern who were convicted of crimes stemming from the shooting death of Nicholas Hagood. The crimes occurred on March 26, 2014, and the defendants were indicted on eight counts each, including malice murder, armed robbery, felony murder, hijacking a motor vehicle, aggravated assault, and possessing a firearm during the commission of a felony.The jury found Southern guilty of all counts while Bates, Jordan, Willis, and Fortson were found not guilty of malice murder but guilty of the remaining counts. The defendants were sentenced to varying terms of imprisonment. Bates, Jordan, and Southern each filed appeals arguing that the evidence was not sufficient to sustain their convictions. In addition, Bates contended that the trial court should have granted a mistrial when a detective testified that Jordan mentioned "the other subjects" in his statement to the police, which Bates claimed violated his rights under Bruton v. United States. Southern argued that the trial court erred by instructing the jury about conspiracy as there was no evidence of a conspiracy, and by allowing a jailhouse informant to testify because the informant was acting as an agent of the State and he obtained incriminating information from Bates without counsel present.The Supreme Court of Georgia affirmed the convictions of Bates, Jordan, and Southern. The court ruled that there was sufficient evidence to uphold the convictions, Bates did not preserve his Bruton claim as he accepted the trial court's curative instruction and did not renew his motion for a mistrial after the instruction was given, and there was no error in instructing the jury about conspiracy because there was at least slight evidence of a conspiracy. The court also ruled that the jailhouse informant was not an agent of the State as there was no evidence of an agreement between the informant and the State. View "BATES v. THE STATE" on Justia Law

In this case, the Supreme Court of Georgia upheld the convictions of Milton Nathaniel Scott for felony murder and other crimes related to the shooting death of Jerrica Porter. Scott had appealed his conviction on the basis that the trial court erred in admitting into evidence one of his custodial statements in which he admitted to shooting Porter but claimed the shooting was an accident. He also contended that the trial court abused its discretion in overruling a hearsay objection to testimony that characterized his initial statement that Porter shot herself as implausible and that his trial counsel was constitutionally ineffective in failing to object to testimony and evidence that suggested he was involved in a gang.The Supreme Court found that even if there was error in the admission of Scott's custodial statement, Scott failed to show harm from the admission because the State introduced into evidence a recording of a jailhouse phone call in which Scott repeated his claim that his shooting of Porter was an accident. The court also found that because Scott's defense was accident and the admission of the hearsay testimony and the evidence to which his trial counsel did not object was not relevant to that defense, these claims did not warrant a reversal.Lastly, the court determined that even if Scott's trial counsel was deficient in failing to object to evidence and testimony suggesting Scott's gang involvement, Scott failed to establish that this alleged deficiency prejudiced him. Therefore, the court affirmed Scott's convictions. View "SCOTT v. THE STATE" on Justia Law

In the Supreme Court of Georgia, the appellants, London Clements and Eric Velazquez, were jointly tried for murder and other offenses connected to the shooting death of Hall County Deputy Sheriff Blane Dixon on July 7, 2019. Clements was convicted of felony murder, and Velazquez was convicted of malice murder and other crimes. On appeal, Clements argued that the trial court erred by denying his motion for a directed verdict on the conspiracy to commit robbery and burglary count and the felony murder count predicated thereon and that the trial court failed to exercise its discretion to grant his motion for new trial on the general grounds. Velazquez contended on appeal that there was insufficient evidence to support his conviction for malice murder and felony murder predicated on aggravated assault on a peace officer, that the trial court erred by denying his motion for a directed verdict as there was insufficient corroboration of his co-conspirators’ testimony, and that he received ineffective assistance of counsel in violation of his Sixth and Fourteenth Amendment rights under the United States Constitution. The court affirmed the convictions in both cases. View "CLEMENTS v. THE STATE (two cases)" on Justia Law

In the Supreme Court of Georgia, Raymond Chambliss was convicted of felony murder for the shooting death of his girlfriend, Tonia Herring, during an argument. On appeal, Chambliss raised several claims. He argued that the evidence was insufficient to support his conviction, the court erred in its instructions to the jury on simple assault and lesser offenses, and his trial counsel was ineffective for failing to request charges for these lesser offenses.The Supreme Court of Georgia, however, disagreed with Chambliss's arguments. The court found that the evidence was sufficient to support Chambliss's felony murder conviction. Regarding the instructional errors, the court concluded that Chambliss had not shown that the given instruction on simple assault contained any obvious legal error and had not established that the trial court obviously erred by failing to charge the lesser offenses of felony or misdemeanor involuntary manslaughter. Lastly, the court found no merit in Chambliss's claims of ineffective assistance since he had not established that counsel performed deficiently by failing to request charges on lesser offenses that were not available to him.Consequently, the court affirmed Chambliss's conviction. View "CHAMBLISS v. THE STATE" on Justia Law

In this case, the Supreme Court of Georgia had to determine whether a unit-of-prosecution analysis or a required evidence analysis should be used to address the question of merger as to one count of aggravated child molestation and two counts of child molestation. Tony Shropshire was convicted of aggravated child molestation, two counts of child molestation, incest, and first-degree cruelty to children, based on incidents that occurred in 2001 with his five- or six-year-old niece. Shropshire argued on appeal that the two child molestation counts should have merged into the aggravated child molestation conviction. The Court of Appeals applied a unit-of-prosecution analysis and agreed, merging the counts and vacating Shropshire's convictions and sentences for aggravated child molestation and child molestation. The Supreme Court of Georgia vacated this part of the Court of Appeals's judgment and remanded the case. The Supreme Court held that a unit-of-prosecution analysis should be applied to determine whether the two counts of child molestation (the same crime) merge. However, as child molestation and aggravated child molestation are different crimes, a required evidence analysis should be applied to determine whether these two different crimes merge. The Court of Appeals erred in applying a unit-of-prosecution analysis rather than a required evidence analysis to this question. The case was remanded for the Court of Appeals to apply the correct analyses. View "THE STATE v. SHROPSHIRE" on Justia Law

In this case, property owners and residents of the Statham Lakefront Subdivision in Sumter County, Georgia, sought to require the county to repair roads in their subdivision. The county had not expressly accepted the roads as public roads, but the residents argued that the county had an obligation to maintain the roads because they had been open to the public since their creation. The trial court ruled that the county had no obligation to maintain the roads. The Court of Appeals vacated this decision, and remanded the case back to the trial court to determine whether there was evidence of "recognition of the streets as public streets or acceptance of the dedication by the public."The Supreme Court of Georgia granted Sumter County's petition for certiorari. The court held that a county is not obligated to repair and maintain a road if county authorities have not accepted the land owner’s offer to dedicate the road to public use. Therefore, the Court of Appeals erred in directing the trial court to consider whether the public accepted the road as a public road. However, the Supreme Court of Georgia found ambiguity in the Court of Appeals's decision and remanded the case back to the Court of Appeals to clarify whether it was directing the trial court to consider if the county authorities or the general public recognized the roads as public. View "SUMTER COUNTY v. MORRIS" on Justia Law

In this case, Arlene James filed a premises liability lawsuit against Brixmor New Chastain Corners SC, LLC, after she tripped on a parking bumper in a parking lot owned by Brixmor and sustained injuries. The parking bumper was not in its usual location but was instead laid out to separate the parking space from a motorcycle parking area. After the incident, Brixmor painted the parking bumper yellow. The trial court denied Brixmor's motion for summary judgment due to disputed facts about whether the structure James tripped on was a hazard and whether she had previously encountered it. The trial court also granted James's motion for sanctions for spoliation of evidence, barring Brixmor from arguing that the parking bumper was not a potential hazard. On appeal, the Court of Appeals affirmed the denial of summary judgment but vacated the order imposing spoliation sanctions, remanding the matter to the trial court to apply the correct legal standard.The Supreme Court of Georgia granted Brixmor's petition for a writ of certiorari but chose to address a different issue: the Court of Appeals' determination that Brixmor failed to demonstrate an abuse of discretion by the trial court in considering the subsequent remedial measures rule in its analysis of the spoliation issue. The Supreme Court of Georgia held that once the Court of Appeals concluded that the trial court applied the incorrect standard on spoliation, consideration of the remedial measure rule was unnecessary and thus dicta. The Supreme Court of Georgia vacated Division 3 of the opinion to the extent that it purports to make a legal determination on the subsequent remedial measures rule and remanded the case to the Court of Appeals for proceedings consistent with this opinion. View "BRIXMOR NEW CHASTAIN CORNERS SC, LLC v. JAMES" on Justia Law