Court Opinion

ID: 9849769
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 04:45:47.188965+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:20:25.839354
License: Public Domain

Felton, Chief Judge,
dissenting. Although the trial judge did not approve the brief of evidence attached to and made a part of the petition for certiorari he admitted in his answer to the writ that the document contained the brief of the evidence on the trial. Paragraph (1) of the brief of evidence is: (1) “Defendant, Albert Burger, is a chronic, compulsive alcoholic who has lost control over the use of alcoholic beverages,” and Paragraph (2) is: “Defendant suffers from the disease of alcoholism and his drinking is non-volitional.”
The cases cited in the majority opinion are not authority for the ruling in this case. In the first place, in Grimes v. Burch, 223 Ga. 856, supra, the defendant was punished for escaping and not for the offense for which he was confined, and every ruling on the question of the consequences of alcoholism was obiter and taken from an ancient discussion of views at a time when alcoholism as such had probably never been heard of. The Act of 1964 (Code Ann. § 88-401) recognizes alcoholism as an illness. How this court can say that this fact does not have any application in the field of criminal law is beyond my comprehension. The fact that the Department of Health has not made provision for the care of alcoholics who should be confined be*333cause of formerly recognized criminal acts is immaterial insofar as a person’s constitutional rights are concerned. The Federal cases cited are not controlling because of the aforementioned Act of the General Assembly recognizing alcoholism as an illness. I think the trial court erred in view of the brief of evidence.