Court Opinion

ID: 9626135
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 08:03:19.056044+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:06:21.910935
License: Public Domain

McMurray, Presiding Judge,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent because the Court of Appeals of Georgia has no authority to overrule the Supreme Court of Georgia. “It is as elemental as ABC that the Court of Appeals is bound by decisions of the Supreme Court.” Hogan v. State, 118 Ga. App. 398, 400 (163 SE2d 889).
The well rooted maxim the majority assaults in the case sub judice is not unique to this Court’s decisions in Bell v. State, 219 Ga. App. 553, 554 (2) (466 SE2d 68), and Sloan v. State, 214 Ga. App. 784, 785 (2) (449 SE2d 328). Long ago, the Supreme Court of Georgia stated: “It is well recognized that when evidence is admitted for one purpose, . . . it is not error for the court to fail to instruct the jury to limit its consideration to the one purpose for which it is admissible, in the absence of a request to so instruct the jury. [Cits.]” Harrell v. State, 241 Ga. 181, 186 (2) (243 SE2d 890). And contrary to the majority’s interpolation, nothing in Williams v. State, 261 Ga. 640, 641 (2) (409 SE2d 649), or Stephens v. State, 261 Ga. 467 (405 SE2d 483), changes this rule in similar transaction cases. Indeed, the Supreme Court has applied this rule in a case involving “similar transaction evidence.” See Jackson v. State, 204 Ga. 47, 56 (3) (48 SE2d 864). And the author of the majority opinion concurred in applying the maxim in question in Rayner v. State, 190 Ga. App. 746 (380 SE2d 342), also a case involving “similar transaction evidence.” Since the Supreme Court holding in Jackson v. State, 204 Ga. 47, 56 (3), supra,.was not disapproved in Williams or Stephens or any other Supreme Court decision and since the Court of Appeals cannot overlook such superior authority, I would affirm defendant’s judgment of conviction and sentence for possession of cocaine with intent to distribute.
I am authorized to state that Chief Judge Andrews, Presiding Judge Birdsong, and Judge Eldridge join in this dissent.