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  • McGouirk v. The State

    Publication Date: 2018-07-17
    Practice Area: Constitutional Law | Criminal Law
    Industry:
    Court: Georgia Supreme Court
    Judge: Presiding Justice Melton
    Attorneys: For plaintiff: Allen Rust Knox (Towaliga Judicial Circuit Public Defenders Office), Forsyth, for appellant.
    for defendant: Jonathan Lang Adams, Anita Reynolds Howard, Richard G. Milam, Cynthia Trimboli Adams (Towaliga Judicial Circuit District Attorney's Office), Barnesville; Patricia B. Attaway Burton, Paula Khristian Smith, Christopher M. Carr (Department of Law), Atlanta, for appellee.
    Case Number: S18A0130

    The trial court erred in automatically detaining defendant pursuant to O.C.G.A. § 17-7-130 (c) solely based on the fact that he was a mentally incompetent individual who had been accused of committing violent crimes without exercising its discretion to make "an individualized determination of whether his confinement reasonably advanced the government's purpose.

  • Dupree v. The State

    Publication Date: 2018-07-16
    Practice Area: Criminal Law | Evidence
    Industry:
    Court: Georgia Supreme Court
    Judge: Justice Benham
    Attorneys: For plaintiff: Lawrence W. Daniel (Lawrence W. Daniel PC), Atlanta, for appellant.
    for defendant: Patricia B. Attaway Burton, Paula Khristian Smith, Christopher M. Carr, Matthew David O'Brien (Department of Law), Atlanta; Emily Kathleen Richardson, Brian Keith Fortner (Douglas County District Attorney's Office), Douglasville, for appellee.
    Case Number: S18A0268

    The evidence supported defendant's convictions for malice murder and other crimes arising out of the asphyxiation death of a 75-year-old woman.

  • Wade v. The State

    Publication Date: 2018-07-16
    Practice Area: Criminal Law | Evidence
    Industry:
    Court: Georgia Supreme Court
    Judge: Justice Hunstein
    Attorneys: For plaintiff: Matthew K. Winchester (Law Offices of Matthew K. Winchester), Atlanta, for appellant.
    for defendant: Patricia B. Attaway Burton, Paula Khristian Smith, Michael Alexander Oldham, Christopher M. Carr (Department of Law), Atlanta; Anna Green Cross, Sherry Boston, Otobong U. Ekpo (DeKalb County District Attorneys Office), Decatur, for appellee.
    Case Number: S18A0327

    Although the evidence supported defendant's convictions for murder and related offenses arising out of the beating death of his girlfriend's 18-month-old son, the Court vacated his sentence and remanded for resentencing because the trial court erred in failing to merge certain counts.

  • Clayton County Board of Tax Assessors v. Aldeasa Atlanta Joint Venture

    Publication Date: 2018-07-16
    Practice Area: Real Estate | Tax
    Industry:
    Court: Georgia Supreme Court
    Judge: Justice Benham
    Attorneys: For plaintiff: Arash Ali Sabzevari, Jack R. Hancock (Freeman Mathis & Gary LLP), Forest Park, for appellant.
    for defendant: W. Scott Wright, Alla Raykin (Eversheds Sutherland (US) LLP), Atlanta, for appellee.
    Case Number: S18A0430

    The trial court properly granted summary judgment to a private business in a dispute over taxation of retail concession space at the airport, because the contract between the City of Atlanta and the business for the lease of the space did not create a taxable interest subject to ad valorem taxation by Clayton County.

  • Ware v. The State

    Publication Date: 2018-07-13
    Practice Area: Criminal Law | Evidence
    Industry:
    Court: Georgia Supreme Court
    Judge: Justice Grant
    Attorneys: For plaintiff: Mary Katherine Durant (Durant Law LLC), Stone Mountain, for appellant.
    for defendant: Patricia B. Attaway Burton, Matthew Blackwell Crowder, Paula Khristian Smith, Christopher M. Carr (Department of Law), Atlanta; Natalie Spires Paine, John Marriott Markwalter (Augusta Judicial Circuit District Attorney's Office), Augusta, for appellee.
    Case Number: S18A0028

    The evidence supported defendant's convictions for felony murder and other crimes in connection with the shooting death of his wife and the trial court did not err in failing to give a jury instruction on voluntary manslaughter, as the evidence did not support such a charge.

  • Gadson v. The State

    Publication Date: 2018-07-13
    Practice Area: Criminal Appeals | Criminal Law | Evidence
    Industry:
    Court: Georgia Supreme Court
    Judge: Justice Nahmias
    Attorneys: For plaintiff: Tyler R. Conklin (Georgia Public Defender Council), Atlanta, for appellant.
    for defendant: Patricia B. Attaway Burton, Paula Khristian Smith, Christopher M. Carr, Meghan Hobbs Hill (Department of Law), Atlanta; Paul L. Howard Jr., Lyndsey Hurst Rudder (Fulton County District Attorney's Office), Atlanta; Arthur C. Walton, Arthur C. Walton (Fulton County Courthouse), Atlanta, for appellee.
    Case Number: S18A0123

    Murder defendant failed to show harm resulting from the trial court's error in failing to give a certain jury charge and thus failed to prove plain error.

  • Campaign for Accountability v. Consumer Credit Research Foundation

    Publication Date: 2018-07-12
    Practice Area: Government | Public Records
    Industry:
    Court: Georgia Supreme Court
    Judge: Justice Nahmias
    Attorneys: For plaintiff: Henry R. Chalmers, Megan Poitevint Mitchell (Arnall Golden Gregory LLP), Atlanta, for appellant.
    for defendant: Thurbert E. Baker, Nathan L. Garroway, Mark Adam Silver (Dentons US LLP), Atlanta, for appellee. Jennifer Colangelo, Christopher M. Carr, Russell David Willard, Annette M. Cowart (Department of Law), Atlanta, for other party.
    Case Number: S17G1676

    The Court of Appeals erred in ruling that all records that are exempted from the Open Records Act's general disclosure requirement under O.C.G.A. § 50-18-72 (a) are prohibited from disclosure to the public.

  • Carr v. The State

    Publication Date: 2018-07-12
    Practice Area: Constitutional Law | Criminal Law
    Industry:
    Court: Georgia Supreme Court
    Judge: Justice Nahmias
    Attorneys: For plaintiff: Amber Lee Connell (Lookout Mountain Judicial Circuit Public Defender), Ringgold; David James Dunn Jr. (Lookout Mountain Judicial Circuit Public Defender), LaFayette, for appellant.
    for defendant: Herbert E. Franklin Jr. (Lookout Mountain Judicial Circuit District Attorney's Office), LaFayette; Clayton McLean Fuller (Lookout Mountain Judicial Circuit District Attorney's Office), Ringgold, for appellee. Christopher M. Carr, Sarah Hawkins Warren, Ross Warren Bergethon, Patricia B. Attaway Burton, Paula Khristian Smith (Department of Law), Atlanta, for amicus appellee.
    Case Number: S18A0100

    The trial court erred in holding that O.C.G.A. § 17-7-130 (c) is constitutional and violated defendant's right to due process when it ordered that he be detained for inpatient evaluation solely because he had been charged with committing violent crimes and found mentally incompetent to stand trial.

  • Cope v. The State

    Publication Date: 2018-07-12
    Practice Area: Criminal Law | Evidence
    Industry:
    Court: Georgia Supreme Court
    Judge: Justice Benham
    Attorneys: For plaintiff: Steven Lee Sparger, Savannah, for appellant.
    for defendant: Patricia B. Attaway Burton, Paula Khristian Smith, Christopher M. Carr, Scott Orion Teague (Department of Law), Atlanta; Margaret Ellen Heap, Emily Catherine Puhala (Office of the District Attorney Eastern Judicial Circuit), Savannah, for appellee.
    Case Number: S18A0313

    The evidence supported defendant's convictions related to the death of his brothers' roommate and the trial court did not err in admitting two statements defendant made to police after the murder.

  • Georgia Department of Human Services, Division of Family and Children Services v. Christopher Steiner

    Publication Date: 2018-07-12
    Practice Area: Constitutional Law | Family Law
    Industry:
    Court: Georgia Supreme Court
    Judge: Justice Grant
    Attorneys: For plaintiff: Ross Warren Bergethon, Annette M. Cowart, Sarah Hawkins Warren, Penny Hannah, Shalen S. Nelson, Andrew Alan Pinson, Christopher M. Carr, Victoria Cuneo Powell (Department of Law), Atlanta; Kenneth Gene Lawrence (Turner & Lawrence PC), Jackson, for appellant.
    for defendant: Joseph Scott Key, Kayci Nicole Dennis (Miller & Key PA), McDonough, for appellee. Andrew Santos Fleischman (Ross & Pines LLC), Atlanta; Laura D. Hogue (Hogue & Hogue LLP), Macon; Charles R. Bliss, Mara Leah Block (Atlanta Legal Aid Society Inc), Atlanta; Lisa Jane Krisher, Michael Joseph Tafelski, Jamie B.J. Rush (Georgia Legal Services Program), Atlanta; David Alfred Webster, Atlanta, for amicus appellee.
    Case Number: S18A0281

    The superior court erred in finding that Georgia's central child abuse registry is unconstitutional, both on its face and as applied to appellee.