Court Opinion

ID: 9587203
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 23:19:17.547867+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:35:03.978714
License: Public Domain

Evans, Judge,
dissenting. I dissent from the majority opinion . and would reverse the trial court on enumeration of error number 17, which is as to the trial court’s charging on "flight” as to the appellant.
The trial court charged the jury, "There is some evidence of flight in this case.” This was clearly an expression of opinion as to what "has or has not been proven” and the appellate courts of . Georgia have repeatedly held that the same constitutes reversible error. Code § 81-1104; Alabama Great Southern R. Co. v. McBryar, 67 Ga. App. 509, 514 (21 SE2d 173); Phillips v. Williams, 39 Ga. 597 (1); Bohler v. Owens, 60 Ga. 185; Sanders v. Nicolson, 101 Ga. 739 (28 SE 976); Patterson v. State, 181 Ga. 698, 708 (184 SE 309); Robinson v. State, 207 Ga. 337 (3) (61 SE2d 475). Further, the Court of Appeals has held that where said rule is violated, it is mandatory that a new trial be granted. Imperial Investment Co. v. Modernization Const. Co., 96 Ga. App. 385 (2) (100 SE2d 107). The applicable statute in this respect is as follows: "Code § 81-1104. Expression of opinion on facts, error. It is error for any judge of a superior court, in any case, whether civil or criminal or in equity, during its progress, or in his charge to the jury, to express or intimate his opinion as to what has or has not been proved, or as to the guilt of the accused; and should any judge of said court violate the provisions of this section, such violation shall be held by the Supreme Court or Court of Appeals to be error, and the decision in such case reversed, and a new trial granted in the court below, with such directions as the said Supreme Court or Court of Appeals may lawfully give.”
Of course, when under the evidence a fact is not in dispute, the court may so instruct the jury. Miller v. Dean, 113 Ga. App. 869 *300(3) (150 SE2d 191); Atlanta Metallic Casket Co. v. Hollingsworth, 104 Ga. App. 154, 161 (121 SE2d 388). But such was not the case as to the alleged flight here.
Flight, unexplained, is a circumstance to show guilt, and, in connection with other evidence, may be sufficient to authorize a conviction. See Sheffield v. State, 1 Ga. App. 135 (2) (57 SE 969); Miller v. State, 91 Ga. 186, 188 (16 SE 985); Lancaster v. State, 168 Ga. 470 (6) (148 SE 139); Tyler v. State, 91 Ga. App. 87 (3) (84 SE2d 843).
Thus, the court clearly stated there was some evidence of flight in the case, and as flight is a fact which the jury may consider as indicative of guilt, a reversal is required.
The majority opinion points out that there was undisputed evidence of flight by a different defendant, who was tried at the same time, and cites authority on the general propositen that a charge on an undisputed fact is not error. But, that defendant who fled was found not guilty, and he is not complaining, whereas the defendant in the case sub judice was found guilty and he is bitterly complaining because the jury was allowed to believe that the trial judge considered that he had fled. The State assumes a calculated risk in trying the defendants jointly, in that a charge which is appropriate as to one of the joint defendants may not be appropriate as to another, and it becomes the duty of the trial judge to make plain to the jury as to which defendant is subject to a certain charge, when another defendant is being tried who is not subject to that charge. Failure to take these precautions is but to invite reversible error, as was done in the case sub judice.