Opinion ID: 2504897
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: jurisdiction

Text: Throughout its history, the Georgia Supreme Court has had appellate jurisdiction to consider appeals in murder cases. As the sole appellate court from 1845 until 1906, this Court received all appeals from the superior courts. See Dawson v. State, 130 Ga. 127, 129-130, 60 S.E. 315 (1908). In 1906, the Court of Appeals was established by a constitutional amendment that also set out the jurisdiction of both courts. Among the cases assigned to the Supreme Court were all cases of conviction of a capital felony. Ga. L. 1906, p. 24. The following year, this Court considered whether it had jurisdiction over the appeal of a murder case when the accused was imprisoned for life, instead of being sentenced to death. See Caesar v. State, 127 Ga. 710(1), 57 S.E. 66 (1907). In Caesar, the Court interpreted capital felony to mean felonies in which the death penalty may be affixed as a punishment, as distinguished from the class of felonies in which death can never be imposed under any circumstance. Id. at 712-713, 57 S.E. 66. Thus, the Court concluded that it had jurisdiction in every capital felony where the law provides for punishment by death as a penalty, whether or not the penalty is imposed in the specific case. The language assigning capital felony convictions to the Supreme Court was carried forward unchanged in the Georgia Constitutions of 1945 and 1976. Ga. Const. of 1976, Art. VI, Sec. II, Par. IV (in all cases of conviction of a capital felony); Ga. Const. of 1945, Art. VI, Sec. II, Par. IV (same). Similarly, this Court continued to interpret the conviction of a capital felony language as conferring on the Supreme Court appellate jurisdiction over cases in which the accused was found guilty of a capital felony. See, e.g., Mika v. State, 196 Ga. 473(2), 26 S.E.2d 616 (1943) (jurisdiction depends on whether there is a conviction of a capital felony and not on what punishment is actually imposed). See also Dawson, 130 Ga. at 132, 60 S.E. 315 (constitutional amendment gives the Supreme Court the power of ultimate determination of jurisdictional questions between the two courts). In 1977, this Court reexamined our jurisdiction over capital felonies after the Georgia General Assembly enacted a law affecting the jurisdiction of the state's two appellate courts. The act gave the Court of Appeals jurisdiction of appeals in cases involving armed robbery, rape, and kidnapping where the death penalty had not been imposed and the Supreme Court jurisdiction in cases involving state revenue, election contests, and the validity of municipal ordinances. Ga. L. 1977, p. 710, § 1. Inquiring into our own jurisdiction, we held that the legislative attempt to enlarge our jurisdiction by transferring certain appeals from the Court of Appeals to this Court was unconstitutional. Collins v. State, 239 Ga. 400(1), 236 S.E.2d 759 (1977). To effectuate the act's legislative intent, we adopted an order under our inherent powers directing the Court of Appeals to transfer cases involving state revenues, election contests, and the constitutionality of municipal ordinances to the Supreme Court. See id. at 403, 236 S.E.2d 759. On the issue of transfers to the Court of Appeals, this Court determined that the constitution permitted the change of appellate jurisdiction of armed robbery, rape, and kidnapping cases from our Court to the Court of Appeals. Citing our 1907 decision in Caesar v. State , we reaffirmed that the term capital felony applies to felonies to which the death penalty may be imposed under certain circumstances. Collins, 239 Ga. at 402, 236 S.E.2d 759. Since the death penalty could no longer be imposed for the crimes of armed robbery, rape, and kidnapping where the victim was not killed, we concluded that they were not capital felonies and the Court of Appeals had jurisdiction of appeals involving those crimes. Id. at 402-403, 236 S.E.2d 759. This ruling left unchanged our jurisdiction over all life-imprisonment murder cases, see id. at 404, 236 S.E.2d 759 (Jordan, J., concurring specially), since the crime of murder remained a felony to which the death penalty could be affixed as punishment under specific circumstances.