Court Opinion

ID: 9853912
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 05:57:19.189187+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:20:15.706357
License: Public Domain

Benham, Chief Justice,
dissenting.
Finding myself unable to agree with Division 7 of the majority opinion or with the affirmance of Hayes’s conviction, I must respectfully dissent.
The majority opinion finds that overwhelming evidence of guilt made it harmless error for the trial court to limit defendant’s closing argument to less time than is provided for by the clear language of OCGA § 17-8-73: “In cases involving capital felonies, counsel shall be limited to two hours for each side.” Hayes was indicted along with two other defendants for murder (two counts), armed robbery, and possession of a firearm in the commission of a crime. Each defendant was represented by separate counsel and the trial court, over objection, limited their argument to 30 minutes each, which totaled is 30 minutes less than is provided under the statute.
*815Under our constitution, a defendant is guaranteed the right to trial and representation under certain circumstances. See Ga. Const., Art. I, Sec. I, Pars. I, XI, XII, and XIV. The right to be heard is the lifeblood of our constitution and it is a quintessential part of American jurisprudence. The Court of Appeals made that clear in Kittles v. State, 74 Ga. App. 383, 385 (39 SE2d 766) (1946) when it said,
[Cjounsel in a capital felony case are entitled, as a matter of right, to two hours on a side in which to argue their case, and the trial judge has no right in his discretion in such a case to limit their argument to a shorter period of time. It seems to us that the court had no right in its discretion to limit counsel for the defendant in the instant case, in which the defendant was charged with murder, to one hour, and that when he did so he committed reversible error.
Therefore, any meaningful restriction, such as we definitely have here, on this constitutionally guaranteed, statutorily authorized, and judicially sanctioned right must be scrutinized with the utmost of care.
In determining whether a defendant is harmed by an improper limitation on argument, we must look to the facts of the particular case, taking into consideration the gravity of the charges, complexity of the case, number of witnesses, length of trial, conflicts in evidence, and a host of other factors. See 23A CJS 123, Criminal Law, § 1238. The present case was a murder and armed robbery case, the trial of which lasted four days and produced a transcript of 1,096 pages. There were more than two dozen witnesses and sixty-five requests for charge (thirty-nine by the State and twenty-six by the defense). At the beginning of closing argument, defense counsel informed the jury that he had been limited in his argument and that he would be unable to fully outline his contentions. Counsel spent the bulk of his time calling into question the testimony of various witnesses who appeared for the State. There were seven objections made by the State during defendant’s closing argument, and the trial court reminded defense counsel on three occasions during closing argument that his time was limited. During one of the State’s objections to the defense’s argument, after counsel inquired of the trial judge whether the time would be charged to his allotted time, the trial judge stated in the presence of the jury that defendant had agreed to the limitation on his time. Although the defense was based on accident, Hayes’s counsel mentioned "accident” only once during closing argument, whereupon the trial judge interrupted his argument and told him he had only five minutes left. No other mention was made of *816“accident.”
Decided December 3, 1997 —
Reconsideration denied December 19, 1997.
Stanley C. House, for appellant.
Daniel J. Craig, District Attorney, Charles R. Sheppard, Assistant District Attorney, Thurbert E. Baker, Attorney General, Paula K. Smith, Senior Assistant Attorney General, for appellee.
The trial court’s error had its genesis in the trial court’s misunderstanding as to what the law required: the trial court viewed this case as a non-capital felony when it should have been viewed as a capital felony. That error became more harmful when the trial court, by asserting in the presence of the jury that defense counsel had agreed to the limitation on closing argument, when in fact the limitation had been imposed contrary to the statute and over counsel’s objection, destroyed counsel’s credibility with the jury. Further harm occurred when the time limitation improperly imposed by the court did not allow defense counsel time to discuss the basic theory of his defense, “accident.” When we consider these factors together with such other factors as the length of trial, number of defendants, number of witnesses, multiple charges and number of requested jury charges, it becomes apparent that the limitation on argument resulted in a fundamentally unfair trial.
While the evidence against Hayes was certainly strong enough to convict him, I cannot agree that it was, as the majority opinion states it must be in order to render error harmless, “so overwhelming that it renders any other version of events virtually without belief.” That is especially evident in the fact that Hayes’s co-defendants, who were alleged to have participated with him in the robbery scheme which led to the victim’s death, and to have split the proceeds of the crimes, were acquitted on the same evidence. The trial court’s limitation on Hayes’s right to closing argument deprived him of a valuable opportunity to press his case to the jury and was harmful error.
I would, therefore, reverse the conviction and order a new trial. I am authorized to state that Justice Hunstein and Justice Thompson join in this dissent.