Court Opinion

ID: 9598530
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 01:09:39.362823+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:49:48.264848
License: Public Domain

Birdsong, Presiding Judge,
concurring specially.
Although I concur fully with all that is said in the other divisions of the opinion and in the result, I cannot concur with that part of Division 4 of the majority opinion that overrules Chamberlain v. State, 216 Ga. App. 207 (453 SE2d 793), because of a perceived direct conflict with Whitt v. State, 257 Ga. 8 (354 SE2d 116). Even though *42Whitt and Chamberlain reached different results on whether a similar charging error was harmful in light of the full charges given, no conflict exists between them. As nothing in Chamberlain or Whitt suggests that the full charges given were the same, the cases are distinguishable.
In Whitt, supra at 9 (3), the trial court charged “the state was not ‘required to prove the guilt of the defendant beyond all reasonable doubt, but (was) required to prove beyond a reasonable doubt,’ ” and in Chamberlain, supra at 208 (2), the trial court charged “ ‘the state is not required to prove the guilt of the accused beyond all reasonable doubt or to a mathematical certainty.’ ” (Emphasis omitted.) Though these charging errors both concerned charges on reasonable doubt, they are not identical, and, more significantly, Whitt does not hold that a slip of the tongue error in the reasonable doubt charge is always harmless.
Indeed, in Whitt the Court considered the full charge given and found that in the context of the full charge the slip of the tongue was harmless error. See Whitt, supra at 9. This result is consistent with the rule that mere verbal inaccuracies in a charge, resulting from a palpable slip of the tongue, which clearly could not have misled or confused the jury do not constitute reversible error. Gober v. State, 247 Ga. 652, 655 (278 SE2d 386); Siegel v. State, 206 Ga. 252 (2) (56 SE2d 512).
Thus, it is incorrect to focus merely on the similarity of the slip of the tongue in these cases. No case has held that this particular slip of the tongue is always harmless error, and to so hold would violate the principle that charging errors are presumed to be harmful unless the record shows that the error was actually harmless. Foskey v. Foskey, 257 Ga. 736, 737 (363 SE2d 547); Barton v. State, 79 Ga. App. 380, 387 (53 SE2d 707). Further, it is a fundamental rule that jury instructions must be considered as a whole in determining whether there was error in the charge. Hambrick v. State, 256 Ga. 688, 690 (353 SE2d 177). Therefore, appellate courts must test the full charge to see if the slip of the tongue was harmful.
After applying this principle, Chamberlain held that, notwithstanding the full charge, the error was not harmless because there was a fair risk the slip of the tongue could have confused or misled the jury. We concluded that the part of the charge in which the slip of the tongue occurred had “a different purpose from the parts of the charge on reasonable doubt that were correctly given; when correctly given, it places a limit on the prosecution’s burden, i.e., not beyond all doubt or to a mathematical certainty. Consequently, while the other parts of the charge correctly instructed the jury that the prosecution was required to prove Chamberlain’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, this erroneous charge allowed the jury to convict Cham*43berlain while still retaining some reasonable doubt about his guilt.” Chamberlain, supra at 208. “A charge containing two distinct propositions conflicting the one with the other is calculated to leave the jury in such a confused condition of mind that they can not render an intelligible verdict. Where an erroneous charge on a material issue is of such a nature as is calculated to confuse or mislead the jury, a new trial will be granted, notwithstanding the correct rule may have been announced in another portion of the charge.” (Citations and punctuation omitted.) Tietjen v. Meldrim, 169 Ga. 678, 696 (151 SE 349). As the charging error in Chamberlain was not rendered harmless by the full charge, reversal was required.
Decided June 28, 1996.
Nicholas Pagano, for appellant.
Thomas J. Charron, District Attorney, Debra H. Bernes, Beth T Golub, Nancy I. Jordan, Assistant District Attorneys, for appellee.
Therefore, as there is no legal conflict between Whitt and Chamberlain, overruling Chamberlain is not required. Moreover, as Chamberlain and Whitt both considered whether an error was rendered harmless by the full charge, that part of the majority opinion which states that Chamberlain somehow rejects the reasoning in Whitt that a slip of the tongue charging error can be corrected by the full charge is incorrect. Whitt does not hold that this error is always harmless; Chamberlain does not hold that the error is always harmful. The cases reached different results after testing the error for harm.
In this case, however, I do not find the slip of the tongue is reversible error. The full charge, and in particular the part of the charge that instructed the jury that the State was required to prove each and every essential element of the crimes charged beyond a reasonable doubt, was sufficient to render the error harmless.
Nevertheless, Chamberlain should not be overruled. Doing so would mean that a jury could be instructed that they could convict even though the jury had a reasonable doubt about the defendant’s guilt, and that result violates one of the fundamental precepts of our system of criminal justice. Accordingly as a majority of the Court has joined in this special concurrence, Chamberlain remains binding precedent. OCGA § 15-3-1 (d).
I am authorized to state that Chief Judge Beasley, Presiding Judge Pope, Judge Andrews, Judge Blackburn and Judge Ruffin join in this special concurrence.