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  • Harris v. The State

    Publication Date: 2018-02-22
    Practice Area: Criminal Law | Evidence | Judges
    Industry:
    Court: Georgia Supreme Court
    Judge: Justice Peterson
    Attorneys: For plaintiff: Eric C. Crawford (Crawford & Boyle, LLC), Monroe, for appellant.
    for defendant: Patricia B. Attaway Burton, Paula Khristian Smith, Christopher M. Carr, Aimee F. Sobhani (Department of Law), Atlanta; Layla Hinton Zon (Alcovy Judicial Circuit District Attorney's Office), Covington; Walter Cliff Howard (Alcovy Judicial Circuit District Attorney's Office), Monroe, for appellee.
    Case Number: S17A1938

    Defendant failed to show that the trial court reversibly erred in making a comment to a State's witness reminding him that he agreed to be credible, as defendant failed to establish that the error affected his substantial rights, given the strong evidence of guilt against him.

  • Norris v. The State

    Publication Date: 2018-02-21
    Practice Area: Criminal Law | Evidence
    Industry:
    Court: Georgia Supreme Court
    Judge: Justice Grant
    Attorneys: For plaintiff: Long Dai Vo, Atlanta, for appellant.
    for defendant: Patricia B. Attaway Burton, Paula Khristian Smith, Christopher M. Carr, Aimee F. Sobhani (Department of Law), Atlanta; Darius T. Pattillo, Blair Douglas Mahaffey (Flint Circuit District Attorneys Office), McDonough; Sharon Lee Hopkins (Henry County District Attorney's Office), McDonough, for appellee.
    Case Number: S17A1587

    The evidence sufficiently supported the trial courts determination that defendant knowingly and voluntarily waived his Miranda rights and gave his statements to police, even if he was intoxicated at the time as he later claimed.

  • Johnson v. The State

    Publication Date: 2018-02-21
    Practice Area: Criminal Law | Evidence
    Industry:
    Court: Georgia Supreme Court
    Judge: Justice Nahmias
    Attorneys: For plaintiff: Patrick Ervin Chisholm (Office of the Public Defender), Bainbridge, for appellant.
    for defendant: Patricia B. Attaway Burton, Paula Khristian Smith, Elizabeth Haase Brock, Christopher M. Carr (Department of Law), Atlanta; Craig Edward Miller, Joseph Kenneth Mulholland, Moruf O. Oseni (South Georgia Judicial Circuit District Attorney's Office), Bainbridge, for appellee.
    Case Number: S17A1479

    The evidence was sufficient to support defendants' convictions arising from the shooting death of one of the defendant's wife's romantic partner and the trial courts finding that the prosecutors peremptory jury strikes were not racially motivated was not clearly erroneous.

  • Kaufman v. The State

    Publication Date: 2018-02-21
    Practice Area: Criminal Law | Evidence
    Industry:
    Court: Georgia Court of Appeals
    Judge: Chief Judge Dillard
    Attorneys: For plaintiff: Debra Jefferson (Attorney at Law), Lawrenceville, for appellant.
    for defendant: Jessica Moss, Rachel Ashe (Cherokee County Solicitor Generals Office), Canton, for appellee.
    Case Number: A17A1881

    The evidence supported defendant's convictions for three counts of stalking, two counts of criminal trespass, five counts of engaging in harassing communications, 11 counts of criminal attempt to commit a misdemeanor by violation of a protective order and one count of violation of a protective order.

  • Prothro v. The State

    Publication Date: 2018-02-20
    Practice Area: Criminal Law
    Industry:
    Court: Georgia Supreme Court
    Judge: Justice Grant
    Attorneys: For plaintiff: Jason W. Swindle, Sr., Dane M. Garland (Swindle Law Group, PC.), Carrollton, for appellant.
    for defendant: Patricia B. Attaway Burton, Paula Khristian Smith, Christopher M. Carr, Michael Alexander Oldham (Department of Law), Atlanta; Anne Cobb Allen (Coweta Judicial Circuit District Attorney's Office), Carrollton; Peter J. Skandalakis (Prosecuting Attorneys Council of Georgia), Morrow, for appellee.
    Case Number: S17A1399

    Defendant failed to prove that he received constitutionally ineffective assistance of counsel in his trial on charges of malice murder and other crimes after he killed his grandfather and set his house on fire.

  • Roberts v. The State

    Publication Date: 2018-02-20
    Practice Area: Criminal Appeals | Criminal Law
    Industry:
    Court: Georgia Court of Appeals
    Judge: Presiding Judge Miller
    Attorneys: For plaintiff: James Roberts, Pelham, for appellant.
    for defendant: Paul Howard (District Attorney), Atlanta; Kevin Armstrong (Office of the District Attorney), Atlanta, for appellee.
    Case Number: A17A1577

    The trial court erred in denying defendant's pauper's status without first holding a hearing on the question of indigence pursuant to O.C.G.A. § 9-15-2.

  • Pike v. The State

    Publication Date: 2018-02-20
    Practice Area: Criminal Law | Evidence
    Industry:
    Court: Georgia Supreme Court
    Judge: Chief Judge Hines
    Attorneys: For plaintiff: Jeffrey L. Grube, Warner Robins, for appellant.
    for defendant: Patricia B. Attaway Burton, Paula Khristian Smith, Christopher M. Carr, Matthew Min-Soo Youn (Department of Law), Atlanta; Daniel Patrick Bibler, George Herbert Hartwig, III, Alicia Deck Gassett (Houston County District Attorney's Office), Perry, for appellee.
    Case Number: S17A1541

    The evidence, including evidence of venue, was sufficient to support defendant's convictions for malice murder and related crimes and the trial court did not abuse its discretion in admitting into evidence autopsy photographs of the victim and evidence of an armed robbery the defendant and victim committed together two days before the victim's murder.

  • The State v. Smith et al.

    Publication Date: 2018-02-16
    Practice Area: Criminal Law | Evidence
    Industry:
    Court: Georgia Supreme Court
    Judge: Justice Boggs
    Attorneys: For plaintiff: Frank M. Pennington, II, Margaret Ellen Heap, Christine Sieger Barker (Office of the District Attorney Eastern Judicial Circuit), Savannah, for appellant.
    for defendant: Solomon Adeoye Amusan (The Amusan Law Firm, PC), Savannah; Richard M. Darden (Darden Law Firm), Savannah; Caroline Heather Bradley (Richard M. Darden PC), Savannah; Thomas Raymond Bateski (Thomas R. Bateski, Esq PC), Savannah; Martin Gregory Hilliard (Martin G. Hilliard PC), Savannah; Steven Lee Sparger, Savannah, for appellee.
    Case Number: S17A1992

    The trial court erred in granting defendant's motion in limine to exclude a statement one of his co-defendants made because the statement did not directly inculpate defendant so the trial court should have concluded that the statement would be admissible against the co-defendant with an instruction to the jury to consider the statement only against him.

  • 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.