Gines v. the State (three Cases)

Summary

The Supreme Court of Georgia affirmed the murder and related convictions of Gines, Mahone, and Dawson. The court rejected sufficiency, jury-instruction, sentencing, record-completeness, and constitutional claims, while holding that several claims were waived or unpreserved and that the ineffective-assistance claims failed for lack of deficient performance or prejudice. The court also held that the Confrontation Clause claim involving substitute-pathologist testimony could not satisfy plain-error review because the testimonial nature of autopsy-report statements was reasonably disputable.