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Brown v. State

The trial court erred in charging the jury that they could consider the level of certainty of a witness's identification in evaluating her reliability.

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Forace Brown appeals from his aggravated assault conviction and contends that: 1 insufficient evidence supports his conviction; 2 the trial court erred in its jury charge on eyewitness identification testimony; 3 the trial court allowed improper evidence of his bad character; 4 the prosecutor made an improper burden-shifting comment during closing argument; and 5 hearsay evidence was used to establish his identity as the perpetrator of the aggravated assault. We find that sufficient evidence supports Brown’s conviction, but we reverse and remand this case for a new trial based on the trial court’s erroneous charge to the jury. 1. We first address Brown’s contention that the evidence was insufficient. Construed in favor of the verdict, the evidence shows that three men asked the victim for money while she was walking home in the early morning hours. When she replied that she did not have any money, one of the men took her walking stick and beat her with it. The victim gave the police a general description of her assailant’s age, height, skin color, and clothing. She identified Brown as her assailant in court and in a pre-trial photo line-up and had no doubt about the accuracy of her identification.

This evidence sufficiently supports Brown’s conviction under the standard set forth in Jackson v. Virginia , 443 U. S. 307 99 SC 2781, 61 LE2d 560 1979; Hawkins v. State , 254 Ga. App. 868, 869 563 SE2d 926 2002. The victim’s identification of Brown provided direct evidence linking him to the crime, “and the credibility of the victim is solely a matter to be resolved by the jury. Cit.” Hawkins , supra.

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