Supreme Court of Georgia

The Supreme Court of Georgia reaffirmed its Olevik holding that Paragraph XVI of the Georgia Constitution protects individuals from being compelled to perform incriminating acts, including submitting to a state-administered breath test, rejecting the State's request to overrule it.

The Supreme Court of Georgia granted a writ of certiorari to clarify Bradshaw v. State's treatment of other-acts evidence admitted under OCGA § 24-4-404(b) to prove criminal intent.

The court affirmed Gates’s convictions, holding that the challenged text message was admitted for its effect on Gates and therefore was not hearsay. It further held that any unpreserved error concerning firearms evidence did not satisfy the plain-error standard, and that Gates waived appellate review of unobjected-to…

The court held that evidence of Jones’s prior DUI less-safe conviction was admissible under Rule 404 (b) to show his intent and knowledge, even though the charged DUI offenses were general-intent crimes.

Reviewing a divided Court of Appeals reversal of a trial court's grant of Jack Hughes's motion to suppress the results of a post-accident blood test demanded under OCGA § 40-5-55 (a), the Supreme Court of Georgia affirmed the reversal.

The court affirmed Bradshaw’s convictions for the murders and related offenses, holding that the evidence was sufficient even when considering the properly admitted evidence of a prior Ohio murder.

The Court held that the habeas court improperly applied procedural default to Tolbert's claim that his pretrial notice of appeal deprived the trial court of jurisdiction. Because the record showed that Tolbert was represented by counsel when he filed the pro se notice, the notice was unauthorized and ineffective, so…

The court held that sovereign immunity bars claims for injunctive relief against the State at common law and overruled the prior judicially created exception permitting such claims.

The Supreme Court of Georgia reversed the trial court's denial of the Technical College System's and Kia's motions to dismiss an Open Records Act suit seeking records about Kia's hourly hiring practices.

The Supreme Court of Georgia held that a defendant may not use an untimely motion to vacate a sentence of imprisonment to attack a prior conviction used as a recidivist predicate by recasting a denial-of-counsel claim as a claim that the sentence is void.

The court held that a guilty plea does not waive a claim that convictions merged under Georgia law, because a merged conviction is void and the resulting sentence is illegal. The court nevertheless affirmed most convictions because the limited guilty-plea record did not establish merger, while vacating four of five…

The Supreme Court of Georgia affirmed Jehrod Romer's convictions for malice murder and firearm possession in the shooting death of 16-year-old Quantavia Hill, finding the trial evidence sufficient under the view-most-favorable-to-the-verdict standard notwithstanding conflicting testimony and the absence of any proven…

The court affirmed Shaw’s malice-murder conviction, holding that the evidence was sufficient for a rational jury to reject his self-defense claim and find the requisite intent. It further held that Shaw was not entitled to relief from the unrequested duty-to-retreat instruction under plain-error review and that none…

The Supreme Court of Georgia affirmed the Court of Appeals' dismissal of Homer Gable's discretionary application as untimely, holding that trial courts lack authority to grant out-of-time discretionary appeals where no constitutional violation makes that remedy necessary.

The Supreme Court of Georgia reversed a trial court's grant of a new trial to Lonnie Kelly, holding that the omission of an express 'inherent dangerousness' instruction in his felony murder trial was not plain error: controlling precedent established that refusing such an instruction is not error at all, and the jury…

The Supreme Court of Georgia affirmed summary judgment for the defendants in this wrongful death action, answering two certified questions and applying them to the record. It held that expert evidence typically is not required to prove causation in a simple negligence case, but is required where a 'specialized medical…

The court held that the felony-murder statute's requirement that a defendant "cause" a death incorporates ordinary proximate-cause principles, rather than requiring the defendant or a co-felon to directly inflict the fatal injury.

The Supreme Court of Georgia dismissed Walter Williams' direct appeal from the trial court's denial of his March 2009 motion to correct an illegal sentence, in which he argued that his armed robbery conviction had merged as a matter of fact with his malice murder conviction under OCGA § 16-1-7 (a).

The Supreme Court of Georgia affirmed the denial of Rufus Wesley's motion for new trial on his malice murder and related convictions. The evidence—that Wesley approached an unarmed man with a shotgun and fatally shot him in the head as he retreated—was sufficient under Jackson v. Virginia.

The Supreme Court of Georgia dismissed Richard Harper's pro se appeal from the denial of his motion to vacate his 1982 DeKalb County murder conviction, holding that a motion to vacate a conviction is not an appropriate remedy in a criminal case. The court overruled Division 2 of Chester v.

The Supreme Court of Georgia affirmed Tito Flores Vega's conviction for felony murder committed during arson in the first degree, rejecting all three of his appellate contentions.

Certiorari was granted to test the sufficiency of the evidence on the asportation element of Georgia's kidnapping statute. Finding that the longstanding 'movement however slight' standard had so expanded kidnapping that minor movements incidental to other crimes drew ten-years-to-life penalties — raising…

The court affirmed the denial of Ruffin's motion to dismiss the indictment for violation of his constitutional speedy-trial rights. Applying the two-stage presumptive-prejudice and four-factor balancing framework, the court held that the delay was presumptively prejudicial and that several aspects of the trial court's…

The Supreme Court of Georgia reinstated Robert Wayne Holsey's death sentence, reversing the habeas court's vacatur: even assuming arguendo that trial counsel performed deficiently in furnishing records to the defense psychologist, developing mitigation evidence, and advancing a second-shooter theory, Holsey showed no…

The Supreme Court of Georgia affirmed the habeas court's denial of Jerry Drinkard's petition, holding that his 1996 statutory rape and incest convictions do not merge into his rape conviction because proving each required additional facts — the victim's age and unmarried status for statutory rape, and her familial…

The court affirmed Williams's convictions for malice murder and possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime. It held that the evidence was sufficient, that hearsay concerning prior difficulties was erroneously admitted under the necessity exception but the error was harmless, and that the remaining…

The Supreme Court of Georgia affirmed William Fuller, Jr.'s convictions for felony murder and possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime, finding the trial evidence sufficient under Jackson v. Virginia.

The Supreme Court of Georgia affirmed the trial court's denial of a new trial to Rico Robinson following an evidentiary hearing on his claim that trial counsel rendered ineffective assistance during his malice-murder trial.

The Court dismissed the direct appeal because it had already denied the appellant’s discretionary application on the merits, making a second review of the same claims barred by res judicata.

The court held that the County was not entitled to summary judgment on the Home Builders Association's claims challenging development-related fees as exceeding the cost of the services provided.

The Supreme Court of Georgia granted certiorari to decide whether the Court of Appeals erred in affirming summary judgment for the Department of Transportation while declining to address the widow's legal arguments that were first raised on appeal.

The Supreme Court of Georgia affirmed the Court of Appeals' reversal of the trial court's grant of summary judgment to the City of Gainesville in retired police officer Jack Dodd's pension contract and tort suit, holding on certiorari that the Court of Appeals did not err in refusing to consider summary-judgment…

Affirming both decisions under review, the Supreme Court of Georgia held that state courts must treat a government employee's qualified immunity from personal liability as the threshold issue, ahead of causation under OCGA § 40-6-6, because immunity protects independent judgment and spares officials the risks of…

The Supreme Court of Georgia affirmed Antavis Miller's convictions for malice murder and possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime, rejecting his sole appellate contention that the State's evidence was insufficient.

The court affirmed the convictions and sentences after holding that the evidence was sufficient to support the verdicts. It also held that trial counsel was not ineffective because counsel’s decision to pursue a guilty-but-mentally-ill verdict as a strategy to avoid a death sentence was reasonable given the…

The court affirmed Grier’s convictions, holding that the evidence was sufficient, his custodial statements were freely and voluntarily made after valid Miranda advisements and waiver, and any deficiency in the trial court’s initial Jackson-Denno findings was cured by later findings.

The court affirmed the denial of Jackson's motion for an out-of-time appeal because he had already pursued and received a decision on a timely appeal. It held that he could not obtain a second appeal merely by asserting that no prior appeal had been taken, and announced that similar appeals would thereafter be…

The Supreme Court of Georgia reversed Gary Jones's felony-murder and related convictions because the State failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that venue properly lay in Fulton County, holding that in every criminal trial the prosecution must establish venue beyond a reasonable doubt and disapproving the 'slight…

The Supreme Court of Georgia affirmed Stephon Suggs' convictions for malice murder, armed robbery, theft by taking of a motor vehicle, concealing the death of another, and theft by taking, finding the evidence sufficient under the Jackson v.

After granting certiorari to examine the Court of Appeals' treatment of appellants' single-enumeration, multi-argument challenge to the denial of their motion to suppress, the Supreme Court of Georgia rejected the practice of declining, under OCGA § 5-6-40, to review assertions of error lumped within one enumeration.