Court Opinion

ID: 9564205
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 18:56:05.989229+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:18:16.764945
License: Public Domain

Gunter, Justice,
dissenting. I do not agree with Division 12 of the majority opinion or with the judgment of affirmance in this case.
An indictment was returned against the appellant in three counts. Count One stated that the appellant committed the offense of assault with intent to rape on one victim on October 29, 1970. The Second Count stated that the appellant committed the offense of rape on another and different person on December 5, 1970. The third count of the indictment charged that the appellant committed the offense of assault with intent to rape against still another and different person on the first day of April, 1971.
The appellant made a motion to quash the indictment in that it charged him with three unrelated crimes committed on different dates against different persons. The motion stated that the indictment put the appellant’s character in evidence without his consent in that the indictment alleged three separate and distinct offenses which have no logical relationship to each other and that the only possible reason for placing the three different charges in one indictment was to inflame the minds of the jurors who would try the case and prejudice the jurors with the fact that the appellant was charged with three different offenses. The motion further stated that the indictment as drawn violated the appellant’s constitutional rights with respect to due process and equal protection under the laws.
The trial judge overruled the appellant’s motion to quash, and the trial of the appellant on the three counts of the indictment followed.
The Georgia Constitution says that no person shall be deprived of his liberty except by due process of law. Code Ann. § 2-103.
A statute of this state says that "The general character of the parties, and especially their conduct in other transactions, are irrelevant matter, unless the nature of the action involves such *103character and renders necessary or proper the investigation of such conduct.” Code § 38-202.
I do not understand that the state can try an accused before the same jury for three different crimes committed on three separate dates against three separate persons unless the multiple crimes are committed in what is deemed a continuous transaction.
The indictment in this case shows on its face that there are three separate crimes charged, that there are three separate prosecutors, and that there are three separate fact situations involved.
When all three separate fact situations are presented in one case to the same jury it is clear to me that in the trial of the offense that occurred on April 1,1971, evidence submitted to the jury with respect to the crime committed on December 5,1970, and the crime committed on October 29, 1970, could only have an adverse effect upon the accused in the eyes, ears, and minds of the jurors hearing the case.
The general rule is that in a prosecution for a particular crime, evidence of another and distinct crime wholly independent from that for which one is on trial is inadmissible. There are well recognized exceptions to this rule, but most of these exceptions generally come within the "one continuous transaction” category.
In the recent case of Larkins v. State, 230 Ga. 418 (197 SE2d 367), we reversed a conviction for rape because of the improper admission of evidence relating to an alleged rape upon a witness by the accused which had allegedly occurred some seven months prior to the occurrence for which the accused was then on trial.
Where multiple crimes are charged to have been committed by an accused at different times, against different persons, not a part of one continuous transaction, and not provable by the same evidentiary facts, I conclude that a trial of such multiple crimes before a single jury is prejudicial to the accused; such a trial permits the state to pile up evidence of crime after crime before the jury; and such a trial does not comport with "due process of law” as I understand that phrase contained in the Georgia Constitution.
"In cases of felony, the multiplication of distinct charges has been considered so objectionable as tending to confound the accused in his defense, or to prejudice him as to his challenges, in the matter of being held out to be habitually criminal, in the distraction of the attention of the jury, or otherwise, that it is the settled rule in England and many of our states, to confine the indictment to one distinct offense or restrict the evidence to one *104transaction.” McElroy v. United States, 164 U. S. 76, 80 (17 SC 31, 41 LE 355).
The majority opinion is, in my judgment, wrong when it says in the context of this case that the offense of rape includes the lesser offense of assault with intent to rape. Code Ann. § 26-505 defines "included crime,” and it is clear to me that an included crime must be established by the same proof and against the same person. The two alleged assaults in this case which occurred on different dates and against different persons, not the alleged rape victim, cannot be held to be lesser included crimes to the crime of rape in this case.
Also, Code Ann. § 26-506 defines the conditions for "multiple prosecutions for same conduct.” This Code section says to me that if a person is tried for rape and a lesser included offense, he cannot be convicted of more than one of the alleged crimes. This section also says to me that an accused may be prosecuted in one trial for several crimes only if the several crimes can be established by the "same conduct.” By no stretch of the legal imagination can three crimes occurring at three different places against three different persons, one having occurred on October 29, another having occurred on December 5, and another having occurred on April 1, be considered as having arisen out of the "same conduct.”
In this case the motion to quash the indictment not only went to the illegality of the indictment, but the motion also went to the illegality of the trial of the accused for three separate offenses not arising out of the "same conduct” before the same jury.
The trial judge overruled the motion and proceeded to try the accused for all three alleged crimes before the same jury. This, in my opinion, was a violation of due process of law under both the Georgia Constitution and the Federal Constitution.
I would reverse the judgment.
I respectfully dissent. I am authorized to state that Justice Jordan joins me in this dissent.