Court Opinion

ID: 9764515
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 03:25:14.919965+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:29:57.669844
License: Public Domain

NAHMIAS, Justice,
concurring.
The Chief Justice’s concurring opinion urges the Court to overrule State v. Jackson, 287 Ga. 646 (697 SE2d 757) (2010), rehashing the arguments rejected by a majority of the Court just a few months ago. This request is entirely gratuitous, because as the concurrence acknowledges, this case does not involve the factual scenario at issue in Jackson and would be decided the same way regardless of Jackson. Moreover, it is simply wrong to say that Jackson “imported civil tort liability principles into Georgia criminal law” or created a “new basis for criminal liability in this State.” Concurring Op. at 371. To the contrary, proximate cause has been the causation standard applied throughout our criminal, homicide, and felony-murder case law for decades. See Maj. Op. at 365 (citing cases); Concurring Op. at 370-371 & n. 1-6 (citing cases); Jackson, 287 Ga. at 648-652 & n. 1-2, 4 (citing numerous cases). It was the case that Jackson overruled which unaccountably departed from this otherwise consistent and long-standing Georgia law. The Court today properly declines the invitation to overrule Jackson, and it should do the same in future cases where the issue is actually relevant.