Court Opinion

ID: 9855881
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 06:33:01.329261+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:37:15.833919
License: Public Domain

Hill, Presiding Justice,
concurring specially.
I concur specially as to Divisions 5 and 15.
(5) Although the state is not required to serve a defendant with notice of the statutory aggravating circumstance it intends to prove, Bowden v. Zant, Division 15C, supra, the state is required to make known to the defendant prior to the beginning of the trial the additional evidence it will introduce in aggravation of punishment during the sentencing phase of trial. Code § 27-2503. I therefore concur in Division 5 of the majority opinion in this case. See Bowden v. Zant, supra, Hill, J., concurring specially, 244 Ga. at 265.
(15) In this case the evidence is circumstantial as to the defendant’s guilt, not as to the aggravating circumstance. Compare Douthit v. State, 239 Ga. 81 (6) (235 SE2d 493) (1977). The evidence as to the aggravating circumstance was direct (multiple stab wounds, etc.). Thus, in this case the circumstantial evidence issue, directly affects only the defendant’s conviction.
Convictions based upon circumstantial evidence are not unconstitutional, so long as “. . . the proved facts shall not only be consistent with the hypothesis of guilt, but shall exclude every other reasonable hypothesis save that of... guilt...,” Code § 38-109, and so long as, after viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to support the verdict, any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt. Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U. S. 307 (99 SC 2781, 61 LE2d 560) (1979). See Divisions 1 and 15 of the majority opinion.
Like this court, other courts have affirmed death penalties where the evidence of guilt was circumstantial. State v. Peery, 199 Neb. 656 (261 NW2d 95, 100) (1977), cert. den. 439 U. S. 882 (99 SC 220, 58 LE2d 194) (1978); Thomas v. State, 374 S2d 508, 513 (Fla. 1979), cert. den. 445 U. S. 972 (1980); State v. Carriger, 123 Ariz. 335 (599 P2d 788) (1979), cert. den. 444 U. S. 1049 (1980).
I therefore concur in Division 15 of the majority opinion.