Court Opinion

ID: 9616731
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 04:49:21.793572+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:04:03.360040
License: Public Domain

Gregory, Justice,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent because I am unable to agree with the conclusion of the majority that the Sandstrom error was harmless. I believe there could be a case in which such an error would be harmless because the defendant admitted an intention to kill the victim, then sought to justify or excuse the act. The facts of this case fall one step short of that hypothetical. This defendant did not admit an intent to kill, thus leaving the state of his mind an issue to be resolved by the jury.
OCGA § 16-3-21 (a) provides: “A person is justified in threatening or using force against another when and to the extent that he reasonably believes that such threat or force is necessary to defend himself or a third person against such other’s imminent use of unlawful force; however, a person is justified in using force which is intended or likely to cause death or great bodily harm only if he reasonably believes that such force is necessary to prevent death or great bodily injury to himself or a third person or to prevent the commission of a forcible felony.” White testified he had been cut by the victim several times when he fell down on the porch. As he lay there *735with blood running down his face obscuring his vision, pistol in hand, he thought it was necessary to shoot to protect his own life. One may shoot a pistol with the intention to wound, frighten or kill another. Under White’s version of the facts he was justified in shooting with the intention to accomplish any of these three objects. Furthermore, one might shoot a pistol under circumstances described by White without specific intent. White’s testimony failed to state his intention. So, as I see it, intent was a factual question for jury determination and an essential element of the charge of murder which the State was bound to prove beyond a reasonable doubt. To hold that White’s intent to kill was established by his claim of self-defense under these facts is to presume by his act of shooting that he intended to kill, the very essence of the Sandstrom error itself.
Decided April 23, 1986
Reconsideration denied May 13, 1986.
Samuel A. Hilbun, Robert L. Doyel, for appellant.
Beverly B. Hayes, Jr., District Attorney, Michael J. Bowers, Attorney General, Dennis R. Dunn, Staff Assistant Attorney General, for appellee.
I am authorized to state that Justice Bell joins in this dissent.