Opinion ID: 2394054
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: Reconciling Our Precedents

Text: The time has come to reconcile these two conflicting lines of precedent, as more and more criminal cases tried after the effective date of OCGA § 17-8-58(b) reach the appellate courts and present this issue. We may resolve the issue in State v. Kelly, Case No. S11A0374, because the questions we posed in granting the application to appeal in that case focus specifically on the OCGA § 17-8-58(b) plain error issue. But Kelly is an April Term case that may not be decided until this fall. In the meantime, the majority opinion strains to avoid resolving the issueand I emphasize that the majority opinion should not be read as expressing the Court's ultimate position. Two other opinions released today take the same avoid-the-question approach. See Howard v. State, 288 Ga. 741, ___, 707 S.E.2d 80 (2011); Dolphy v. State, 288 Ga. 705, 707 S.E.2d 56 (2011). Having now identified these conflicting precedents, the State's high court should not leave the Court of Appeals, trial courts, and litigants in criminal cases to pick which line to follow until we get around to deciding the question. I see no reason to wait, because it is clear that we must follow the cases that give effect to the unambiguous text of OCGA § 17-8-58(b), rather than the decisions that ignore that directive. To the extent that Metz and other cases hold or suggest that the failure to object properly under OCGA § 17-8-58(a) waives all appellate review, even review limited to plain error under OCGA § 17-8-58(b), those cases should be overruled without further delay. For these reasons, I cannot join all of Division 4 of the majority opinion.