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Yates v. State

The trial court erred in summarily dismissing eighteen prospective jurors from the jury array who claimed medical problems without inquiring into the nature of the medical excuses or determining special and undue hardship.

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John Thomas Yates was convicted of malice murder, burglary, and aggravated assault. The jury recommended the death penalty for the murder after finding beyond a reasonable doubt that the murder was committed while Yates was engaged in the commission of a burglary. OCGA § 17-10-30 b 2. The trial court sentenced Yates to death and he appeals. Because potential jurors were improperly excused from jury service, we reverse the convictions and sentences.1

1. The evidence adduced at trial authorized the jury to find the following as facts. Yates had an on-again/off-again relationship with Kemylene Thompson. They had dated periodically for four years and had a baby in 1996, but they were not in a relationship with each other in April 1998. In the early morning hours of April 12, 1998, Thompson met Miller Crafter at a party at the local American Legion hall. Yates was also at the party and had an argument with Thompson about the provocative way she was dancing. At about 2 a.m., Thompson and Crafter went to her apartment and, after Thompson locked the front and bedroom doors, had sex. No one else was home.

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