Court Opinion

ID: 9568386
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 20:03:07.018391+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T10:24:42.341446
License: Public Domain

Evans, Judge,
concurring specially.
The majority opinion in Division 8 asserts that it has been held many times that the principles laid down in Code § 38-119 (failure to produce an available witness, and the presumption arising therefrom) is "entirely inapplicable in criminal cases. Sokolic v. State, 228 Ga. 788, 790 (187 SE2d 822).” This language is found in some of the decisions by our Georgia courts on this question, but in each case that I have read on the subject, the application is to the defendant’s failure to produce such witness. A great many cases are cited in the annotations under Code § 38-119 under the key-word "criminal cases.” I find no cases holding that the state or prosecutor is excused from producing witnesses under this statute.
At first blush this might appear unfair to the state. However, a defendant is presumed to be innocent, and the burden is on the state to prove him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Our courts in general carefully refrain from placing any burden on the defendant during the trial of his case, with a corresponding restraint in charging the jury that there is a burden on the defendant. There are, of course, some exceptions. But Code § 38-119 does not appear to be one of them.
But, I readily concur with the majority in affirming the trial court. The transcript (pp. 108-109), shows that defendánt, in suggesting that the court should go back and charge on this subject, did not file a written request; nor did he apprise the court of the particular situation or name of the absent witness, where the state had failed *518to call a witness to repel a claim or charge against the state. It has been held that Code § 38-119 does not apply where the absent witness is just as accessible to one side as to the other. Atlanta &c. Cab Co. v. Atlanta Taxicabs, 104 Ga. App. 89 (3) (121 SE2d 175). If the name of the missing witness had been given to the trial judge, he could have determined whether the witness was less accessible to the defendant than to the state.
But it is my opinion that where the state fails to produce a witness, by which it may repel a charge or claim that has arisen against its contentions or position during the trial; and where such witness is more accessible to the state than to the defendant, upon written request by defendant the trial judge would be required to charge Code § 38-119 to the jury.