• Merrick v. The State

    Publication Date: 2018-06-06
    Practice Area: Criminal Appeals | Criminal Law
    Industry:
    Court: Georgia Court of Appeals
    Judge: Judge Beasley
    Attorneys: For plaintiff: Leon Hicks (Attorney at Law), Jonesboro, for appellant.
    for defendant: Stephen Putnam (Clayton County Solicitor Gen.), Jonesboro; Tasha Mosley (Solicitor General), Jonesboro, for appellee.

    Case Number: A18A0398

    Trial Court Could Not Rule on Motion to Withdraw Plea Filed After Conclusion of Term of Court at Which Plea Was Entered

  • Ricks v. The State

    Publication Date: 2018-05-31
    Practice Area: Criminal Appeals | Criminal Law
    Industry:
    Court: Georgia Supreme Court
    Judge: Justice Hunstein
    Attorneys: For plaintiff: Ashleigh Ricks, Hawkinsville, for appellant.
    for defendant: Stephen Andrew Bradley (Ocmulgee Judicial Circuit District Attorney's Office), Milledgeville; Christopher M. Carr, Paula Khristian Smith, Patricia B. Attaway Burton (Department of Law), Atlanta, for appellee.

    Case Number: S18A0012

    Trial Court Lacked Jurisdiction to Rule On Motion for Out-Of-Time Appeal

  • Holt v. Ebinger

    Publication Date: 2018-05-30
    Practice Area: Criminal Appeals | Criminal Law
    Industry:
    Court: Georgia Supreme Court
    Judge: Justice Blackwell
    Attorneys: For plaintiff: Patricia B. Attaway Burton, Paula Khristian Smith, Ashleigh Dene Headrick, Christopher M. Carr (Department of Law), Atlanta, for appellant.
    for defendant: William Randall Bassett Jr., Philip Robbins Green (King & Spalding LLP), Atlanta, for appellee. Paige Reese Whitaker (Fulton County District Attorney's Office), Atlanta, for other party.

    Case Number: S18A0052

    The habeas court erred in granting habeas relief to petitioner because his failure to complete the record with relevant evidence from the trial proceedings was fatal to all of the claims for which he was granted relief.

  • In The Interest Of K.S., A Child.

    Publication Date: 2018-05-30
    Practice Area: Criminal Appeals | Criminal Law
    Industry:
    Court: Georgia Supreme Court
    Judge: Justice Hunstein
    Attorneys: For plaintiff: James John Anagnostakis (Anagnostakis Law Group), Douglasville, for appellant.
    for defendant: Kristi Lee Winstead Wilson, Brian Keith Fortner, Sean Alexander Garrett (Douglas County District Attorney's Office), Douglasville, for appellee.

    Case Number: S17G1344

    Decisions Regarding Transfer of Juveniles to Superior Court Are Directly Appealable to Court of Appeals

  • Usher v. The State

    Publication Date: 2018-05-24
    Practice Area: Constitutional Law | Criminal Appeals | Criminal Law
    Industry:
    Court: Georgia Supreme Court
    Judge: Justice Blackwell
    Attorneys: For plaintiff: Johnny O'Neal Usher, Nicholls, for appellant.
    for defendant: Layla Hinton Zon, Shaun Joseph Foley (Alcovy Judicial Circuit District Attorney's Office), Covington; Christopher M. Carr, Patricia B. Attaway Burton, Paula Khristian Smith (Department of Law), Atlanta, for appellee.

    Case Number: S18A0274

    Defendant Seeking Out-of-Time Appeal Failed To Show Any Claims of Error Would Be Resolved In His Favor

  • Warbington v. The State

    Publication Date: 2018-05-21
    Practice Area: Criminal Appeals | Criminal Law
    Industry:
    Court: Georgia Supreme Court
    Judge: Justice Boggs
    Attorneys: For plaintiff: Jordan Warbington, Helena, for appellant.
    for defendant: Patricia B. Attaway Burton, Paula Khristian Smith, Christopher M. Carr (Department of Law), Atlanta; Daniel J. Porter, Tracie Hobbs Cason (Gwinnett County District Attorney's Office), Lawrenceville, for appellee.

    Case Number: S18A0347

    The trial court denied defendant's meritless Motion for Jail-Credit Time when it should have dismissed the motion as a nullity; because the motion was a nullity, the Supreme Court dismissed defendant's appeal from the denial of the motion.

  • Gibbs v. The State

    Publication Date: 2018-05-09
    Practice Area: Criminal Appeals | Criminal Law | Evidence
    Industry:
    Court: Georgia Supreme Court
    Judge: Justice Benham
    Attorneys: For plaintiff: Forrest K. Shealy, Marietta, for appellant.
    for defendant: Michael Scott Carlson, Amelia Greeson Pray, D. Victor Reynolds, Jaret Teague Usher (Cobb County District Attorney's Office), Marietta, for appellee.

    Case Number: S17G1343

    The Court of Appeals properly affirmed the trial courts denial of defendant's motion for new trial based on ineffective assistance of counsel, as he could not show a reasonable probability that the outcome of the trial would have been different absent trial counsel's alleged deficiencies, in light of the strong evidence of his guilt.

  • Lynn v. The State

    Publication Date: 2018-05-07
    Practice Area: Criminal Appeals | Criminal Law | Evidence
    Industry:
    Court: Georgia Court of Appeals
    Judge: Presiding Judge McFadden
    Attorneys: For plaintiff: Donald Samuel (Garland Samuel & Loeb PC), Atlanta, for appellant.
    for defendant: Michael Mahoney (Office of the District Attorney, Bell-Forsyth Judicial Circuit), Cumming, for appellee.

    Case Number: A17A2117

    The trial court reversibly erred in excluding certain testimony as hearsay, because the evidence was not hearsay, as it was not offered to prove the truth of the matter asserted but rather to show its effect on defendant's state of mind and its impact on his later actions; the evidence was relevant; and it was not cumulative of other admitted evidence.

  • The State v. Aduka

    Publication Date: 2018-04-30
    Practice Area: Criminal Appeals | Immigration Law
    Industry:
    Court: Georgia Supreme Court
    Judge: Justice Benham
    Attorneys: For plaintiff: Deborah D. Wellborn, Sherry Boston, Anna Green Cross (DeKalb County District Attorney's Office), Decatur, for appellant.
    for defendant: Akintunde A. Akinyele (Akinyele Law Firm LLC), Decatur; Akinwunmi Doherty (The Doherty Law Firm), Atlanta, for appellee.

    Case Number: S17A1717

    The Court reversed the grant of appellee's petition for a writ of habeas corpus, finding that the trial court erred in ruling that plea counsel was deficient in advising his noncitizen client that he could be deported, rather than informing him that he would be deported if he entered the plea in question, because the law was not succinct and straightforward at the time.

  • The State v. Hudson

    Publication Date: 2018-04-25
    Practice Area: Criminal Appeals | Criminal Law
    Industry:
    Court: Georgia Supreme Court
    Judge: Justice Nahmias
    Attorneys: For plaintiff: Paul L. Howard Jr., Kevin Christopher Armstrong, Lyndsey Hurst Rudder (Fulton County District Attorney's Office), Atlanta, for appellant.
    for defendant: Brandon Alexander Bullard (Georgia Public Defender Council), Atlanta, for appellee. Randee J. Waldman (The Barton Juvenile Defender Clinic), Atlanta, for amicus appellee.

    Case Number: S17G0739

    The trial court erred in reducing juvenile defendant's sentence for armed robbery because the discretion given to sentencing courts by O.C.G.A. § 49-4A-9 (e) is limited by the mandatory minimum sentence requirements of O.C.G.A. § 17-10-6.1; accordingly, the Supreme Court reversed the Court of Appeals judgment to the extent it affirmed that reduced sentence.