Supreme Court of Georgia
Hodges v. State
November 2, 2017302 Ga. 564
Summary
The court affirmed Hodges's convictions after concluding that the text-message compilation was properly authenticated, any error in refusing a coercion instruction was harmless, the juror's dictionary use did not warrant a new trial, and the trial court did not abuse its discretion in excusing prospective jurors. The court nevertheless vacated the additional 20-year sentence because the aggravated-assault conviction underlying that sentence merged into the armed-robbery conviction for sentencing purposes. The court also independently found the evidence legally sufficient to support the convictions.