Supreme Court of Georgia

The court held that evidence concerning Brantley’s alleged sexual assault of Crawford and her report of it was admissible in the murder trial as intrinsic evidence. The evidence was relevant to motive, necessary to complete the account of the events leading to Crawford’s death, and inextricably intertwined with the…

The court held that the trial court materially misapplied the constitutional speedy-trial framework by conflating presumptive prejudice with the length-of-delay factor, improperly neutralizing State-attributable delay with unsupported defense counsel absences, and disregarding the defendant’s noncompliant speedy-trial…

The court affirmed McDaniel’s convictions, holding that his statements during the custodial interview were admissible because his remarks about remaining silent and obtaining counsel were ambiguous and equivocal in context, and he continued speaking before receiving and agreeing to renewed warnings.

The Court affirmed the denial of McCoy’s pretrial immunity motion because the hearing evidence did not establish by a preponderance of the evidence that her use of deadly force was justified.

The Supreme Court of Georgia accepted Samuel David Ozburn’s petition for voluntary surrender of his law license, removing him from the rolls, because his admissions of multiple violations of the Georgia Rules of Professional Conduct were consistent with the Court’s precedent for such disbarments.

The Court adopted the Special Master's findings that McKinney violated multiple professional-conduct rules through client abandonment, inadequate communication, unreasonable fee retention, failure to expedite litigation, and dishonest conduct.

The Supreme Court of Georgia disbarred Andrew Thurston Murphy for violating Rule 8.4(a)(2) of the Georgia Rules of Professional Conduct by being convicted of multiple felonies involving terroristic threats and intimidation that interfered with the administration of justice, finding the aggravating factors outweighed…

The Supreme Court of Georgia affirmed Glenn’s convictions for malice murder, firearm possession, and fleeing a police officer, holding that the circumstantial evidence was constitutionally sufficient, met Georgia’s statutory sufficiency standard, and that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in excluding…

The court affirmed denial of Floyd’s plea in bar, holding that Georgia’s procedural double-jeopardy statutes did not prevent his reindictment and retrial after his prior convictions were reversed for ineffective assistance.

The Supreme Court of Georgia affirmed Denson’s convictions, holding that his counsel’s failure to object to the prosecutor’s closing‑argument remarks did not constitute ineffective assistance, and that the trial court was correct in sentencing him for felony murder predicated on possession of a firearm by a…

The Supreme Court of Georgia affirmed Calhoun’s convictions and sentences for malice murder, burglary, and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony. The court held that the trial court properly admitted the prior burglary and shooting under Rule 404(b), and it rejected or deemed waived, harmless, or…

The court held that the defendants did not waive reliance on the medical-malpractice noneconomic-damages cap by first raising it in post-trial motions, and it reaffirmed the constitutional framework protecting jury-determined damages.

The court affirmed a medical-malpractice judgment imposing liability for Baumstark’s death, a $42 million damages award, and approximately $11.8 million in attorney fees. It held that the trial court acted within its discretion in excluding unreliable expert testimony, that the defendants affirmatively waived their…

The court affirmed the denial of Buchalla’s plea in bar, holding that constitutional and statutory double-jeopardy protections did not prevent his later prosecution for murder after his earlier conviction for attempted murder and aggravated assault.

The court affirmed Booze’s rape conviction, rejecting his as-applied vagueness challenge, constitutional sufficiency challenge, and two challenges to the jury instructions. It held that the rape statute incorporated the established common-law understanding that constructive force may be shown when intoxication…

The Supreme Court of Georgia affirmed Battle’s convictions, holding that his counsel’s failure to request claim‑of‑right and justification jury instructions did not constitute ineffective assistance, and that his claim of a preserved mistrial error was not preserved for review.

The Supreme Court of Georgia affirmed Banks's convictions for malice murder, burglary, and firearm offenses, as well as his life-without-parole sentence. The court held that the evidence was constitutionally sufficient, any possible Confrontation Clause violation caused by the courtroom replica was harmless beyond a…

The Court held that the statutory “place or places” limitation, including its definition excluding the defendant’s residence, is an essential element of aggravated stalking. Because the indictment alleged a specific address but did not allege that it was not Walker’s residence or otherwise plead facts establishing…

The court held that the Georgia RICO Act does not categorically exclude racketeering activity merely because it arises in a domestic dispute, and that a court may invoke the absurdity doctrine only after textual analysis reveals multiple plausible interpretations.

The Court affirmed the order granting Postell a new trial because evidence of Lawson’s violent character and known prior acts was admissible to support Postell’s self-defense claim and, on this record, could not be excluded under the balancing rule for unfair prejudice.

The Court vacated the order granting Ovalle a new trial on the felony-murder count because the trial court assessed the “in the commission of” element by focusing on Nicholson’s ingestion of fentanyl rather than Ovalle’s conduct that allegedly proximately caused the death.

The Court affirmed the grant of Cullins’s plea in bar, concluding that the trial court did not clearly err in finding that the prosecutor intentionally provoked a mistrial to obtain a second chance to try the case.

The court affirmed Rucker’s and Simmons’s convictions. It held that the evidence supported Rucker’s child-cruelty convictions, that the challenged statements either caused no reversible error or were properly admitted, and that Rucker did not show the prejudice required to overturn the denial of severance.

The Supreme Court of Georgia affirmed Mosley’s convictions and the denial of his amended motion for new trial. It rejected his sufficiency and trial-error claims, finding the evidence sufficient and concluding that the challenged evidentiary ruling, at most, was harmless; it also found no basis to disturb the trial…

The Supreme Court of Georgia affirmed dismissal of Twum-Baah’s pretrial habeas petition because he did not challenge the stated ground for dismissal—his failure to present supporting evidence—and could not add that challenge in his reply brief.

The Supreme Court of Georgia denied Uber’s petition for certiorari, leaving the trial court’s discovery order in place without deciding its merits. Chief Justice Peterson concurred, explaining that appellate review was unavailable without a certificate of immediate review and criticizing the trial court’s apparent…

The Court vacated the order granting Downing a new trial because the trial court had not determined whether his unwarned statement to police was involuntary before finding that the murder weapon was suppressible or that counsel’s failure to present evidence about how police found it prejudiced him.

The Court affirmed Somerville’s remaining convictions, concluding that the evidence was sufficient under both federal due-process and Georgia circumstantial-evidence standards to support the jury’s finding that he was a party to the crimes.

The Court affirmed Simmons’s convictions, concluding that evidence of his intent to shoot Cunningham could support malice murder for Walker’s death under transferred intent. Simmons waived appellate review of his challenge to the admission of the 2021 incident evidence and of the aggravated-assault instruction he had…

The Court affirmed Sanders’s convictions, finding no plain error in the omission of a no-duty-to-retreat instruction or in the instructions given after an alternate juror replaced a deliberating juror; his separate challenge to the replacement was affirmatively waived.

The Supreme Court of Georgia denied Sanoh’s petition for certiorari without an explanatory merits opinion. Justice Pinson, joined by three other justices, dissented, arguing that the Court should review whether a carrier’s breach of its extraordinary-diligence duty in an abrupt-stop case may be decided as a matter of…

The Court affirmed Reynolds’s convictions, concluding that any error in limiting his defense expert’s testimony about motive, planning, and concealment was harmless. The expert testified to the substance of those concepts through her descriptions of Reynolds’s behavior, mental illness, synthetic-marijuana use, and…

The Supreme Court of Georgia reversed the grant of habeas relief because Long did not establish prejudice from either alleged deficiency by plea counsel. Even assuming counsel performed deficiently, the record did not show a reasonable probability that Long would have rejected the plea and insisted on trial; the…

The Court held that Neely’s notice of appeal was timely because the trial court’s earlier order became a final judgment when the Parsells dismissed their remaining counterclaims. It granted certiorari, vacated the Court of Appeals’ dismissal, and remanded for consideration of Neely’s appeal.

The Supreme Court of Georgia affirmed Minor’s convictions, finding no plain error in admitting his former supervisor’s identification of him in surveillance images and concluding that any error from shackling was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt.

The Court affirmed Milton’s convictions after concluding that a rational jury could find that she intentionally shot Hall and that the shooting was not justified by self-defense.

The Court affirmed McNeil’s convictions, concluding that his challenge to evidence of a later shooting was not preserved, that the unpreserved jury-instruction claims did not warrant relief, and that he failed to establish ineffective assistance of counsel.

The Court reaffirmed the Recreational Property Act immunity test and clarified that its activity inquiry focuses primarily on what the public was generally invited to do on the property, not what the injured plaintiff was doing at the moment of injury.

The Court affirmed Mansfield’s convictions, concluding that his statement was used only to impeach his trial testimony and that the record supported the finding that it was voluntary.

The Court held that a counseled party’s pro se filing is not automatically void in a civil case and that courts retain discretion to recognize it. Because the Court of Appeals treated the Muhammads’ notice of appeal as automatically void under a conflicting rule, the Court vacated that judgment and remanded for the…