Justia Constitutional Law Opinion Summaries

Tiffany Wise appealed her conviction for malice murder for beating 88-year-old Mabel Berry to death. Concluding that the evidence at trial was sufficient to support the conviction and that any error in the admission of a police officer's testimony was harmless, the Supreme Court affirmed. View "Wise v. Georgia" on Justia Law

Marquis Young was tried by jury and convicted of murder and possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime. He appealed, contending that the trial court erred when it allowed the State to reopen the evidence after closing argument had begun and that he was denied the effective assistance of counsel. Upon our review of the record and briefs, the Supreme Court found no error and affirmed. View "Young v. Georgia" on Justia Law

Appellees James and Lawson and two other men were charged in an indictment for the 2005 murders of Jeremiah Ingram and Fatima Fisher. James and Lawson were convicted of murder in separate trials; another co-defendant was acquitted in a trial that took place after the trials of appellees; and the fourth co-indictee pled guilty to a charge of voluntary manslaughter. Both appellees moved for new trial and after conducting a hearing on appellee James's motion, the trial court issued an order in September 2011 that granted new trials to both appellees. The trial court based its grant of new trials on the unavailability at appellees' trials of a piece of evidence that was available at the trial of the co-indictee who was acquitted. The evidence at issue was the second page of the three-page investigative summary compiled by the Office of the Fulton County Medical Examiner. The trial court called the missing page a "critical piece of evidence" and ruled that new trials were required. The State directly appealed the trial court's grant of new trials to appellees Christopher James and Herman Lawson, co-indictees who were convicted in 2008 of malice murder in separate jury trials in the Superior Court of Fulton County. Upon review, the Supreme Court concluded that the trial court erred and reversed the trial court's order granting new trials to James and Lawson. View "Georgia v. James" on Justia Law

Appellant Tracy Lashawn Smith was charged with felony murder (predicated on the underlying felony of either aggravated assault or aggravated battery), aggravated assault and aggravated battery by indictment. The jury found appellant guilty of aggravated assault and aggravated battery, but was unable to reach a verdict on the felony murder charge. The trial court granted a mistrial as to the felony murder charge. The State announced its intent to retry appellant on the felony murder count and appellant filed a plea in bar on double jeopardy grounds. The trial court denied appellant's plea. On appeal to the Supreme Court, appellant argued that the State could not retry him for felony murder without violating the double jeopardy clause because it prosecuted him on the underlying counts of aggravated assault and aggravated battery, the jury found him guilty on those counts, and the State would have to prosecute him on the underlying counts again in order to obtain a felony murder conviction. Disagreeing with this contention, the Supreme Court affirmed the trial court. View "Smith v. Georgia" on Justia Law

James R. Harper, III, Jerry W. Chapman, and Jeffery L. Pombert appealed a trial court's orders denying their various motions challenging charges of theft and violation of the Georgia Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations ("RICO") Act. The charges related to the property of Glock, Inc., and various entities associated with it, and the defendants raised issues regarding the relevant statutes of limitation. Harper, Chapman, and Pombert were indicted and charged through a pattern of "setting up entities and bank accounts and transferring Glock assets and funds through and among various of these entities and accounts, [thereby] divert[ing] and attempt[ing] to divert Glock funds to their own use and control." The defendants filed a general demurrer, special demurrer, plea in bar, and motion to dismiss, asserting various reasons why the indictment and prosecution were infirm, primarily that the relevant statutes of limitation had expired. The trial court denied the requested relief, and the defendants sought an interlocutory appeal with the Supreme Court. Upon review, the Supreme Court concluded that the trial court erred upon an erroneous conclusion that OCGA 17-3-2.2 applied with regard to Counts Two through Eleven in the indictment, and that the date that each crime became "known" within the meaning of OCGA 17-3-2 (2) was the date upon which each crime was reported to law enforcement officers. "But, as to any count of the indictment for which it cannot be shown that Mr. Glock was the owner of the property allegedly stolen, the correct date to apply in analyzing the statute of limitation is the date that the crime became known to the victim of the crime." Thus, the Court concluded, in analyzing this issue as to these counts, the trial court made no finding on threshold date determinations. Accordingly, the case was remanded for a determination, under the proper standard, of when the statutory limitation began. View "Harper v. Georgia" on Justia Law

Deandra Antwan Green filed a special demurrer alleging that his indictment was void because it failed to show that the charged offenses occurred on a date prior to the grand jury's return of the indictment. The trial court found that the court clerk had made an error in writing the date on which the indictment was returned in open court, but that the error was cured by the clerk's actions and testimony. The Supreme Court granted Green's application for interlocutory appeal to determine whether the trial court was correct in overruling the special demurrer. Upon review, the Court held that the clerk's clerical error in entering the indictment's return date was an immaterial defect that could be corrected. Therefore, the Court affirmed. View "Green v. Georgia" on Justia Law

Christopher Gay was convicted of escape in 2011 in Cobb County and was incarcerated in the Northeast Correctional Complex in Mountain City, Tennessee. He has filed a petition with the Georgia Supreme Court for the writ of mandamus in which he sought to have Brian Owens, the Commissioner of the Georgia Department of Corrections, to award him additional pre-trial sentence credit. Gay initially filed his petition in the Superior Court of Fulton County; however, the clerk of that court, citing OCGA 9-10-14(b), returned his petition to him without filing it. After reviewing its jurisdiction, the Supreme Court did not strike the petition from its docket for failing to meet the requirements of OCGA 9-10-14(b). Rather, the Court dismissed Gay’s petition because his petition for a writ of mandamus was one that should have been filed initially in superior court. View "Gay v. Owens" on Justia Law

Appellant City of Suwanee appealed a judgment in favor of Appellee Settles Bridge Farm, LLC in an inverse condemnation action. Following a bench trial, the trial court found that the City of Suwanee's enactment of an amendment to its zoning ordinance was an unconstitutional regulatory taking of a large parcel of land owned by Settles Bridge and awarded Settles Bridge more than $1.8 million in damages. The City appealed, contending, inter alia, that the case was unripe for judicial review due to Settles Bridge’s failure to exhaust its administrative remedies. Upon review, the Supreme Court agreed with the City that Settles Bridge should have exhausted its administrative remedies prior to initiating litigation in this matter, and therefore reversed the judgment entered against the City. View "City of Suwanee v. Settles Bridge Farm, LLC" on Justia Law

Linda Brown appealed her conviction for the malice murder of her three-year-old son, Garry. Appellant contended that the evidence at trial was insufficient to support her conviction and that her trial counsel provided constitutionally ineffective assistance by failing to call a medical expert to testify in her defense. Finding no merit to those arguments, the Supreme Court affirmed. View "Brown v. Georgia" on Justia Law

Appellant Association of Guineans in Atlanta, Inc. applied to the DeKalb County Board of Commissioners (BOC) for a special land use permit (SLUP) for a single-family house located in a residential area of DeKalb County and zoned as a single-family residence. In its permit application, appellant stated an intent to use the property as a "place of worship and family life center." The BOC denied appellant's application and appellant appealed to the superior court seeking a declaratory judgment, an injunction, and a writ of mandamus. After several hearings, the trial court granted the BOC's motions to dismiss and denied appellant's petition for a writ of mandamus on the merits. Appellant argued to the Supreme Court that the trial court erred when it dismissed its constitutional challenges to the zoning statute. Upon review, the Supreme Court affirmed in part, reversed in part, vacated in part and remanded with direction. The Court concluded that the trial court's ruling that appellant failed to make a prima facie case showing a violation of "RLUIPA" was in error. The case was remanded for further proceedings. View "Ass'n of Guineans in Atlanta, Inc. v. Dekalb County" on Justia Law