Court Opinion

ID: 9580499
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 22:05:35.35219+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:36:19.187341
License: Public Domain

Sears, Presiding Justice,
concurring.
I concur with both the majority opinion’s reasoning and judgment. I write separately only to address an argument advanced by the State in this appeal. During oral argument before the Court, the State’s attorney asserted that: “this appeal is not a challenge to the method of execution [in Georgia], this is a challenge to the death penalty statute as a whole.” That argument is both misguided and inaccurate. The only issue considered and addressed by the Court in this matter is whether electrocution as a means of effectuating death sentences comports with the evolving standards of decency required under the Georgia Constitution.7 Today, the Court concludes that electrocution no longer comports with those standards. That ruling, however, has no impact whatsoever on the viability of the death penalty in Georgia. Through this state’s death penalty statute, our citi*337zens long ago resolved that our government has the legal right to take a defendant’s life as punishment for the profound suffering the defendant has caused.8 Notwithstanding the rhetoric of some, the point must not be lost that the efficacy of Georgia’s death penalty statute is not diluted one bit by today’s opinion, and the punishment of death remains an available sentence under the law.

 See Ga. Const., Art. I, Sec. I, Par. XVII.

 OCGA § 17-10-30 et seq.