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Giddens v. State

A defendant's retrial for convictions that have been reversed or vacated due to trial error is not barred by an inconsistent acquittal.

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Appellant Matdrick Giddens was found guilty of five crimes, including two counts of felony murder, in connection with the shooting death of Timothy Murray, Jr. After the trial court granted Appellant’s motion for new trial based on two instructional errors, he filed a plea in bar seeking dismissal of the case based on his constitutional protection against double jeopardy. The trial court denied the plea in bar, and Appellant now appeals that ruling. He argues that the evidence at his trial was insufficient to support the guilty verdicts and that collateral estoppel bars the State from retrying him for the crimes of which he was found guilty, because he was acquitted of the aggravated assault count that is a predicate element of all of those crimes.

We conclude that the evidence was sufficient to support the guilty verdicts. As for the collateral estoppel issue, we note that the United States Supreme Court recently granted certiorari to decide this very question, which has divided the lower courts. See United States v. Bravo-Fernandez, 790 F3d 41 1st Cir. 2015, cert. granted, No. 15 537, 2016 WL 1173125 U.S. Mar. 28, 2016. Unfortunately, that decision will come down after our two-term deadline for deciding this case, see Ga. Const. of 1983, Art. VI, Sec. IX, Par. II, so we must work through the constitutional question. After doing so, we join the majority position and reject Appellant’s argument. We therefore affirm the trial court’s judgment.1

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