Court Opinion

ID: 9567876
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 19:58:31.131365+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T10:20:52.944148
License: Public Domain

Pope, Judge,
concurring specially.
The parties are entitled to rely on the rights and procedures set forth in the Uniform Superior Court Rules. The Supreme Court of Georgia, with the advice and consent of the Council of Superior Court Judges, promulgated Rule 10.2 and saw fit to grant defendants in criminal cases the right to wait and see what the State proved or failed to prove before setting forth their statement of the case to the jury. The very purpose of adopting the Uniform Rules was to assure uniformity of practices among the many trial courts of Georgia. The trial judge in this case ignored the Uniform Rules and announced, in effect, it is the policy of his court to require even the defendant to make whatever opening statement he wishes to make before any evidence is presented. This is erroneous and violates defendants’ rights to rely on the Uniform Rules to plan trial strategy.
Here, for example, directed verdict of acquittal was granted on the count charging defendant with driving while there was .12 percent or more by weight of alcohol in his blood because of the State’s failure to present evidence of the lab results. If defendant had made his opening statement before the presentation of the State’s case, in compliance with the trial court’s local rule, defendant would have been required unnecessarily to comment upon the expected evidence when, in fact, the State did not present the evidence. We can imagine a scenario in which the defendant would be required, by the rule imposed by this trial court, to announce his intention to present evidence of certain matters when, if he had been allowed to wait and see what evidence the State would present, as provided in the Uniform Rules, he might have chosen to rest or not to present the evidence referred to in his opening statement. A defendant should be able to rely on the Uniform Rules when planning his trial strategy. However, here the defendant did not make an opening statement before the State’s evidence was presented, he obtained a directed verdict in his favor on *537one count of the indictment and he chose not to present any evidence. In this case, we see no way in which defendant’s right to plan his trial strategy in reliance upon the Uniform Rules was impaired. Therefore, the conviction need not be overturned where, as here, no prejudice is shown to the complaining party by the trial court’s failure to follow a procedural rule. See Cox v. State, 197 Ga. App. 240 (1) (398 SE2d 262) (1990) (in which the trial court’s failure to rule prior to trial on the admissibility of evidence of similar transactions, as required by Rule 31.1, was not reversible error because no prejudice was shown to the defendant under the specific facts of the case). However, I do not wish the affirmance of this case to be interpreted as showing disregard for the enforcement of the Uniform Rules. The trial courts are required to follow them.
Decided November 8, 1990.
Paul S. Weiner, for appellant.
Robert F. Mumford, District Attorney, for appellee.
I am authorized to state that Judge Beasley joins in this special concurrence.