Archive for December, 2008

Georgia law enforcement to adopt stronger eyewitness identification standards

ON: 12/31/2008

This is a great development. The Macon Telegraph has the story. Anyone who has followed the work of the Georgia Innocence Project, and other Innocence Projects around the country, have no doubt been disturbed by the amount of people held in prison for crimes they did not commit. The sad fact is that many of these people were wrongfully convicted on the basis of "eyewitness testimony." Hopefully, these new standards will help reduce the number of people falsely accused ...

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Georgia criminal lawyer successful in convincing state supreme court to strike down part of sex offender law

ON: 12/30/2008

The Georgia Supreme Court recently declared a life sentence for failing to register as a sex offender unconstitutional. In that case, the Court had to decide whether a life sentence for a second violation of failing to register as a sex offender was excessive punishment and violated the constitution. The Court held that it did. In Bradshaw v. State, the defendant, Bradshaw, was convicted twice of failing to register as a convicted sex offender within 72 hours of changing ...

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Georgia criminal attorney successful in reversing client’s conviction based on judge’s failure to give self defense instruction

ON: 12/30/2008

The Georgia Court of Appeals recently reversed the convictions of a defendant after the trial court failed to instruct the jury on the defendant’s self-defense claim. In Harris v. State, the defendant was convicted by a jury of four counts of aggravated assault, three counts of aggravated battery, and two counts of burglary. The defendant’s sole defense at trial was self-defense and accident. Yet, the trial court judge failed to instruct the jury on this sole defense. Under ...

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Criminal defense lawyer successful in reversing drug conviction based on inadequate consent to search

ON: 12/28/2008

dekalb.jpg The Georgia Court of Appeals recently upheld a trial court's decision to suppress cocaine found in a vehicle for the lack of a proper consent to search when the arresting officer could only say that driver “pretty much” gave consent. In State v. Holloway, two officers were dispatched to a Dekalb County residence with the suspicion that the occupants were selling drugs. When the officers arrived, they saw a man, woman, and ...

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