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  • Smith v. The State

    Publication Date: 2018-04-18
    Practice Area: Criminal Law | Evidence
    Industry:
    Court: Georgia Court of Appeals
    Judge: Judge Andrews
    Attorneys: For plaintiff: Jackie Patterson (Attorney at Law), Atlanta, for appellant.
    for defendant: Jamie Inagawa (Fayette County Solicitor-General), Fayetteville; Joseph Myers (Chief Assistant Solicitor), Fayetteville, for appellee.
    Case Number: A18A0800

    The Court reversed defendant's conviction for DUI-less safe because State failed to prove venue beyond a reasonable doubt.

  • Jones v. The State

    Publication Date: 2018-04-17
    Practice Area: Criminal Law | Evidence
    Industry:
    Court: Georgia Court of Appeals
    Judge: Judge McMillian
    Attorneys: For plaintiff: Brent Hutchison (Attorney at Law), Zebulon; Jacob Weldon (Virgil L. Brown Associates, LLC), Zebulon, for appellant.
    for defendant: Jamie Inagawa (Fayette County Solicitor-General), Fayetteville; Joseph Myers (Chief Assistant Solicitor), Fayetteville, for appellee.
    Case Number: A17A1532

    Log Sheet With Handwritten Alcohol Breath Test Results Was Admissible Under Business Record Exception to Hearsay Rule

  • WXIA-TV et al. v. State Of Georgia et al.

    Publication Date: 2018-04-16
    Practice Area: Communications and Media | Constitutional Law | Criminal Law
    Industry:
    Court: Georgia Supreme Court
    Judge: Justice Blackwell
    Attorneys: For plaintiff: Stephen Derek Bauer, Ian Kyle Byrnside, Cody S. Wigington (Baker & Hostetler LLP), Atlanta, for appellant.
    for defendant: Clifford Paul Bowden (Tifton Judicial Circuit District Attorney's Office), Tifton, for appellee. Robert Sparks Highsmith, Jr., Allen Andre Hendrick (Holland & Knight LLP), Atlanta, for amicus appellant. John Robert Mobley, II, Michael Walter Gowen (Tifton Circuit Public Defender's Office), Tifton; Thomas MacIver Clyde, Lesli Nicole Gaither (Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP), Lawrence Lee Bennett, Jr. (L. Lee Bennett Jr, P.C.), Atlanta; David E. Hudson (Hull Barrett, PC), Augusta, for other party.
    Case Number: S17A1804

    In a high-profile murder case, the Supreme Court vacated a gag order that restrained certain classes of persons from making extrajudicial, public statements on certain subjects related to the case for so long as it remained pending, holding that the record did not reveal circumstances sufficiently exceptional to warrant such a restraint.

  • Walsh v. The State

    Publication Date: 2018-04-16
    Practice Area: Criminal Appeals | Criminal Law
    Industry:
    Court: Georgia Supreme Court
    Judge: Chief Justice Hines
    Attorneys: For plaintiff: George Chadwell Creal Jr., Atlanta, for appellant.
    for defendant: Donna Coleman Stribling, William Thomas Kemp III, Sherry Boston, Kenneth Tyler Edgerton (DeKalb County Solicitor General's Office), Decatur, for appellee.
    Case Number: S17G0884

    The Court of Appeals erred in reversing the trial court's grant of defendant's motion to suppress the results of a horizontal gaze nystagmus test in his DUI trial, as State failed to meet its foundational burden to show that the officer substantially performed the scientific procedures in an acceptable manner."

  • Budhani v. The State

    Publication Date: 2018-04-16
    Practice Area: Criminal Law | Evidence
    Industry:
    Court: Georgia Court of Appeals
    Judge: Presiding Judge Miller
    Attorneys: For plaintiff: Brian Steel (The Steel Law Firm, PC.), Atlanta; Miguel Debon (The Debon Law Group, PC), Lawrenceville, for appellant.
    for defendant: Layla Zon (District Attorney), Covington; Jillian Hall (Newton County District Attorney's Office), Covington, for appellee.
    Case Number: A18A0645

    The trial court did not err in denying defendant's motion to suppress his custodial statement in his trial for possessing and selling a Schedule-1 controlled substance, a synthetic form of marijuana, after finding that the custodial statement was voluntary.

  • Taylor v. The State

    Publication Date: 2018-04-13
    Practice Area: Criminal Law | Evidence
    Industry:
    Court: Georgia Supreme Court
    Judge: Presiding Justice Melton
    Attorneys: For plaintiff: Christina Rupp Cribbs, Jacob Dennis Rhein (Georgia Public Defender Council - Appellate Division), Atlanta; Russell Robert Jones (Office of the Public Defender), Springfield, for appellant.
    for defendant: Patricia B. Attaway Burton, Paula Khristian Smith, Christopher M. Carr, Ashleigh Dene Headrick (Department of Law), Atlanta; Joshua Bradley Smith, Natalie Spires Paine, Rebecca Ashley Wright (Augusta Judicial Circuit District Attorney's Office), Augusta, for appellee.
    Case Number: S17A1627

    The trial court did not err in admitting certain evidence in defendant's trial for the murder of an elderly disabled man for whom defendant provided live-in care.

  • Nations v. The State

    Publication Date: 2018-04-13
    Practice Area: Criminal Law | Evidence
    Industry:
    Court: Georgia Supreme Court
    Judge: Justice Boggs
    Attorneys: For plaintiff: Juwayn Haddad (Haddad Law Group, LLC), Tucker, for appellant.
    for defendant: Patricia B. Attaway Burton, Paula Khristian Smith, Christopher M. Carr, Elizabeth Haase Brock (Department of Law), Atlanta; Paul L. Howard, Jr., David K. Getachew-Smith, Sr., Lyndsey Hurst Rudder (Fulton County District Attorney's Office), Atlanta, for appellee.
    Case Number: S17A1597

    The trial court did not plainly err in admitting into evidence defendant's prior armed robbery conviction in his murder trial because, pretermitting whether admission of the evidence amounted to clear or obvious error, defendant could not show that the admission of the evidence affected his substantial rights, in light of the strength of the evidence of his guilt.

  • Jacobs v. The State

    Publication Date: 2018-04-13
    Practice Area: Criminal Law | Evidence
    Industry:
    Court: Georgia Supreme Court
    Judge: Presiding Justice Melton
    Attorneys: For plaintiff: Kristina Goodwin Connell (Connell Law Firm), Augusta, for appellant.
    for defendant: Patricia B. Attaway Burton, Paula Khristian Smith, Christopher M. Carr, Matthew David O'Brien (Department of Law), Atlanta; Kevin Richard Majeska, William Patrick Doupé, Dennis C. Sanders (Toombs Judicial Circuit District Attorney's Office), Thomson, for appellee.
    Case Number: S17A1892

    The evidence supported defendant's convictions related to the murder of his wife and the trial court did not err in allowing State to introduce into evidence certain statements the victim made before her death under the residual hearsay exception contained in O.C.G.A. § 24-8-807 of Georgias new Evidence Code.

  • Anthony v. The State

    Publication Date: 2018-04-12
    Practice Area: Criminal Law | Evidence
    Industry:
    Court: Georgia Supreme Court
    Judge: Justice Blackwell
    Attorneys: For plaintiff: Michael Harvey Saul, Marietta, for appellant.
    for defendant: Patricia B. Attaway Burton, Paula Khristian Smith, Vanessa Therese Meyerhoefer, Christopher M. Carr, John Stuart Melvin (Cobb County District Attorney's Office), Marietta; Michael Scott Carlson, John Richard Edwards, Jesse David Evans, D. Victor Reynolds, John Stuart Melvin (Cobb County District Attorney's Office), Marietta, for appellee.
    Case Number: S17A1722

    The evidence supported defendants' convictions for murder after they beat a man and left him unconscious on a darkened roadway, where he was struck by a car and killed, but did not support defendants' convictions for criminal gang activity involving an affray, as there was no evidence that the victim was a willing participant in a fight.

  • Hood v. The State

    Publication Date: 2018-04-11
    Practice Area: Criminal Law | Evidence
    Industry:
    Court: Georgia Supreme Court
    Judge: Justice Nahmias
    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, Michael Alexander Oldham (Department of Law), Atlanta; Deborah D. Wellborn, Anna Green Cross, Sherry Boston (DeKalb County District Attorney's Office), Decatur, for appellee.
    Case Number: S17A1753

    The evidence supported defendant's convictions for felony murder and other crimes in connection with the shooting death of one person and the aggravated assault of another during a drug deal and the trial court did not plainly err in its jury charges.