Court Opinion

ID: 9847273
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 03:57:02.653783+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:17:05.460360
License: Public Domain

Hall, Presiding Judge,
concurring specially. A famous playwright once said that judges’ instructions to the jury are "grand conglomerations of garbled verbiage and verbal garbage.” Georgia’s traditional charge on alibi is strong proof to support this claim. See Judge Powell’s opinion in Smith v. State, 3 Ga. App. 803 (61 SE 737); Chief Justice Bleckley’s opinion in Harrison v. State, 83 Ga. 129, 135 (9 SE 542); Green, Georgia Law of Evidence 75-77, §21; Agnor, 11 Encyclopedia of Georgia Law, Evidence, 379, § 138; Parham v. State, 120 Ga. App. 723 (171 SE2d 911); and Judge Edenfield’s opinion in Smith v. Smith, and Shoemake v. Whitlock, Civil Actions Nos. 14304, 14305, United States District Court, Northern District of Georgia, Atlanta Division, opinion dated December 23, 1970.
The sequence of Stump v. Bennett, 398 F2d 111; Johnson v. Bennett, 393 U. S. 253 (89 SC 436, 21 LE2d 415); s. c., 414 F2d 50; Parham v. State, supra; Thornton v. State, 226 Ga. 837 (178 SE2d 193); Pritchard v. State, 122 Ga. App. 780 (178 SE2d 808); the Smith and Shoemake cases in the United States District Court, supra; Cash v. Smith, 227 Ga. 314 (180 SE2d 542); and now the case sub judice, has produced a judicial merry-go-round which can hardly be expected to promote respect for law, order and justice in the minds of the bar and the general public. If the Georgia appellate courts lack either the will or the authority to correct what Judge Powell called a "plain, palpable incongruity,” the whole process of criminal justice in Georgia is exposed to ridicule. Convictions in alibi cases will continue to be mere acts of futility since the defendants will seek and obtain release by the United States District Court. Apparently the only practical solution to the problem lies with the good common sense of our trial judges who can avoid this disastrous charge and thereby preserve what would otherwise be a final judgment in a criminal case.