Supreme Court of Georgia, 2013

The court held that the Open Records Act exception for Quick Start records applies to records relating to job applicants and records identifying proprietary business practices, even after a binding commitment to the economic development project has been secured.

The Supreme Court of Georgia held that von Thomas’s challenge to the validity of a prior conviction did not present a cognizable claim that his later recidivist sentence was void.

The court held that state-employed physicians are entitled to official immunity when the alleged tort occurred within the scope of their state employment, regardless of whether they exercised medical rather than governmental discretion.

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…