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  • Ware v. The State

    Publication Date: 2018-02-15
    Practice Area: Criminal Law
    Industry:
    Court: Georgia Supreme Court
    Judge: Justice Benham
    Attorneys: For plaintiff: Andrew Santos Fleischman (Ross & Pines, LLC), Atlanta, for appellant.
    for defendant: Oliver Jackson Browning, Jr., Ryan Hayes Remsen (Tallapoosa Judicial Circuit District Attorney's Office), Cedartown; Patricia B. Attaway Burton, Matthew Blackwell Crowder, Paula Khristian Smith, Christopher M. Carr (Department of Law), Atlanta, for appellee.
    Case Number: S17A1516

    The trial court did not reversibly err in failing to rebuke the prosecutor for comments he made in his closing argument in defendant's murder trial because, in light of the evidence of guilt, it was highly improbable that the comment contributed to the verdict.

  • Andrews v. The State

    Publication Date: 2018-02-15
    Practice Area: Constitutional Law | Criminal Law
    Industry:
    Court: Georgia Supreme Court
    Judge: Justice Hunstein
    Attorneys: For plaintiff: Sydney Rene Strickland (Strickland Webster, LLC), Atlanta, for appellant.
    for defendant: Patricia B. Attaway Burton, Paula Khristian Smith, Christopher M. Carr, S. Taylor Johnston (Department of Law), Atlanta; Amelia Greeson Pray, D. Victor Reynolds, Michael Scott Carlson (Cobb County District Attorney's Office), Marietta, for appellee.
    Case Number: S17A1728

    The trial court did not err in finding that defendant freely and voluntarily spoke to police and thus properly denied his motion to suppress his custodial statements in his murder trial for killing a cab driver.

  • White v. The State

    Publication Date: 2018-02-15
    Practice Area: Constitutional Law | Criminal Law
    Industry:
    Court: Georgia Supreme Court
    Judge: Justice Boggs
    Attorneys: For plaintiff: Ivars Lacis (Lacis Law, LLC), Peachtree City, for appellant.
    for defendant: Patricia B. Attaway Burton, Paula Khristian Smith, Jason Matthew Rea, Christopher M. Carr (Department of Law), Atlanta; Benjamin David Coker, Brittany Ashton Fallin, Marie Greene Broder (Griffin Judicial Circuit District Attorney's Office), Thomaston, for appellee.
    Case Number: S17A1588

    The trial court did not reversibly err in its jury instruction on reasonable doubt because, when viewing the charge as a whole, the jury instruction did not mislead the jury as to the standard of proof required by due process.

  • Redmon v. Johnson

    Publication Date: 2018-02-01
    Practice Area: Criminal Appeals
    Industry:
    Court: Georgia Supreme Court
    Judge: Per Curiam
    Attorneys: For plaintiff: Jarvis Redmon, Conyers, for appellant.
    for defendant: Paula Khristian Smith, Patricia B. Attaway Burton, Samuel S. Olens (Department of Law), Atlanta, for appellee.
    Case Number: S16H1197

    The Supreme Court of Georgia summarily denied petitioners application for a certificate of probable cause to appeal the habeas courts final order denying his petition for habeas corpus challenging his criminal convictions and clarified the process by which it renders these decisions.

  • Smith v. The State

    Publication Date: 2018-01-03
    Practice Area: Criminal Law | Evidence | Judges
    Industry:
    Court: Georgia Supreme Court
    Judge: Chief Justice Hines
    Attorneys: For plaintiff: Michael Wayne Tarleton (Georgia Public Defender Council), Atlanta, for appellant.
    for defendant: Patricia B. Attaway Burton, Paula Khristian Smith, Jason Matthew Rea, Christopher M. Carr (Department of Law), Atlanta; Jeffery Wayne Hunt, Peter J. Skandalakis, Christopher R. Keegan (Coweta Judicial Circuit District Attorney's Office), Carrollton, for appellee.
    Case Number: S17A1757

    The trial court did not err in refusing to grant defendant's motions for mistrial during jury deliberations on the ground that notes from the jury showed that it was hopelessly deadlocked because the jury's statements did not indicate that it was deadlocked; considering the totality of the circumstances, the trial courts actions did not coerce the jurys verdicts.

  • Womac v. The State

    Publication Date: 2018-01-02
    Practice Area: Constitutional Law | Criminal Law | Evidence
    Industry:
    Court: Georgia Supreme Court
    Judge: Justice Hunstein
    Attorneys: For plaintiff: Michael Robert McCarthy (Mike McCarthy, Criminal Defense Lawyer), Rocky Face, for appellant.
    for defendant: Herbert McIntosh Poston, Jr., Victoria Keely Parker, (Conasauga Judicial Circuit District Attorney's Office), Dalton, for appellee.
    Case Number: S17A1385

    The Supreme Court affirmed defendant's convictions and sentences for aggravated sexual battery, child molestation, cruelty to children in the first degree and false imprisonment and found that his life sentence for aggravated sexual battery did not constitute cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Georgia Constitution.

  • Smith v. The State

    Publication Date: 2017-12-29
    Practice Area: Criminal Law | Evidence
    Industry:
    Court: Georgia Supreme Court
    Judge: Justice Hunstein
    Attorneys: For plaintiff: Jessica A. Seares, Nazish Altaf Ahmed (Atlanta Circuit Public Defender's Office), Atlanta, for appellant.
    for defendant: Patricia B. Attaway Burton, Paula Khristian Smith, Christopher M. Carr, S. Taylor Johnston, Matthew Blackwell Crowder (Department of Law), Atlanta; Joshua Daniel Morrison, Paul L. Howard, Jr., Lyndsey Hurst Rudder (Fulton County District Attorney's Office), Atlanta, for appellee.
    Case Number: S17A1490

    The evidence supported defendant's convictions for felony murder and related offenses in connection with the shooting death of his wife and the trial court did not err in admitting hearsay statements about the couple's volatile history pursuant to the necessity exception.

  • Simpson v. The State

    Publication Date: 2017-12-29
    Practice Area: Criminal Law
    Industry:
    Court: Georgia Supreme Court
    Judge: Justice Peterson
    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, Michael Alexander Oldham (Department of Law), Atlanta; Deborah D. Wellborn, Zina B. Gumbs, Sherry Boston (Dekalb County District Attorney's Office), Decatur, for appellee.
    Case Number: S17A1352

    The evidence supported defendant's convictions for felony murder, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, feticide and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony after he shot his pregnant ex-girlfriend in the face and the trial court did not plainly err in its jury instruction.

  • Muckle v. The State

    Publication Date: 2017-12-29
    Practice Area: Criminal Law
    Industry:
    Court: Georgia Supreme Court
    Judge: Justice Nahmias
    Attorneys: For plaintiff: Margaret Elizabeth Heinen (Office of the Public Defender, Atlanta Judicial Circuit), Atlanta, for appellant.
    for defendant: Patricia B. Attaway Burton, Paula Khristian Smith, Christopher M. Carr, Jason Matthew Rea (Department of Law), Atlanta; Kenneth W. Mauldin, Brian Vance Patterson (Western Judicial Circuit District Attorney's Office), Athens, for appellee.
    Case Number: S17A1363

    The evidence supported defendant's conviction for felony murder in connection with the shooting death of his accomplice in an attempted armed robbery and defendant failed to prove his ineffective assistance of counsel claim based on trial counsel's failure to call another accomplice as a witness at trial.

  • Manner v. The State

    Publication Date: 2017-12-28
    Practice Area: Criminal Law | Evidence
    Industry:
    Court: Georgia Supreme Court
    Judge: Justice Grant
    Attorneys: For plaintiff: Veronica M. O'Grady (GPDC Appellate Division), Atlanta, for appellant.
    for defendant: Patricia B. Attaway Burton, Paula Khristian Smith, Christopher M. Carr, Scott Orion Teague (Department of Law), Atlanta; Anna Green Cross, Lenny I. Krick, Sherry Boston (DeKalb County District Attorney's Office), Decatur, for appellee.
    Case Number: S17A1519

    The trial court properly found that defendant was not entitled to a new trial based on ineffective assistance of counsel.