Court Opinion

ID: 9584679
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 22:51:38.000966+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:13:18.026826
License: Public Domain

Carley, Justice,
dissenting.
“Generally, either accident or self defense will be involved in a case, but not both.” Turner v. State, 262 Ga. 359, 360 (2) (b) (418 SE2d 52) (1992). Since Turner, we have consistently adhered to the *706proposition that it is a “rare” case in which the evidence will authorize a charge on both defenses. See Strong v. State, 263 Ga. 587 (2) (436 SE2d 213) (1993). In my opinion, this is not one of those “rare” cases which falls outside of the general rule. Accordingly, I must respectfully dissent.
Appellant’s testimony wherein he characterized what occurred that evening as involving “[a] little bit of both [self-defense and accident]” is factually undisputed when viewed from the standpoint of the entire sequence of events. Under appellant’s testimony, he had initiated a struggle, acting in the belief that the lives of his children and himself were endangered by the gun-wielding victim. It is undisputed, however, that no shot was fired during this struggle, which ended with appellant securing control of the gun from the victim. Compare Turner v. State, supra. After gaining control of the gun, appellant anticipated a hostile response from the victim. It is also undisputed, however, that appellant’s preparation to meet the victim’s anticipated hostile response did not include any employment of the gun. He unequivocally testified that he “did not intend to use the gun to defend [himself].” Appellant repeatedly and consistently testified that he had not aimed the gun, that he had no intention of firing it and that the gun had discharged accidentally after it had been wrested from the control of the victim. Thus, it is undisputed that appellant’s possession of the gun was a mere incident of his previous defensive struggle with the victim and was not an element of appellant’s self-defense against the victim’s anticipated continuation of that struggle. Accordingly, the events involved “[a] little bit of both [self-defense and accident]” in the factual sense that appellant was initially struggling with the victim over the gun and, after he gained control of the gun, it subsequently discharged accidentally. The issue for resolution is, however, whether this undisputed evidence would authorize a finding that the homicide was legally “[a] little bit of [both self-defense and accident].” “Whether both [self-defense and accident] are involved is initially a question of law for the trial court.” (Emphasis supplied.) Turner v. State, supra at 361 (2) (c).
I believe that this undisputed evidence authorizes only a charge on accident because, in my opinion, Turner should be limited to the “rare” case wherein there is evidence that a shot was fired as the accidental result of an actual on-going defensive struggle over control of a gun. Only in that “rare” instance can it be said that there is such a concurrence of self-defense and accident as to justify a charge on both defenses. Where, as here, it is undisputed that the defendant had control of the gun at the time that the shot was actually fired, the gun was either fired intentionally in self-defense or it accidentally discharged. Entirely unlike the situation where a shot is fired during the course of an on-going defensive struggle over control of a gun, a gun *707which is in the undisputed control of a defendant cannot be intentionally fired in self-defense and simultaneously discharged accidentally. Either the defendant intentionally pulled the trigger of the gun which he controlled or he did not. Under appellant’s undisputed testimony, the defensive struggle over control of the gun was over when the gun discharged accidentally. Thus, in this case, only a charge on accident was authorized.
Decided January 10, 1994.
Michael M. Sheffield, for appellant.
J. Tom Morgan, District Attorney, J. George Guise, Gregory J. Giornelli, Assistant District Attorneys, for appellee.
Under the majority’s extension of Turner, it is no longer the “rare” case in which a charge on both self-defense and accident must be given. A charge on both defenses must now be given in every case wherein there is some evidence of an initial defensive struggle over a gun and a subsequent accidental shooting, regardless of whether the defendant had undisputed control of the gun at the time the shot is fired. It is my opinion that, consistent with Turner, a charge on both defenses should continue to be limited to the “rare” case wherein there is some evidence that the gun discharged accidentally while the defendant was simultaneously defending himself by struggling over control of a gun. Since this is clearly not such a “rare” case, I must respectfully dissent to the reversal of appellant’s conviction for the failure to give an unauthorized additional charge on self-defense.
I am authorized to state that Justice Sears-Collins and Justice Hunstein join in this dissent.