Court Opinion

ID: 9540878
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 16:20:27.962927+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:01:27.218243
License: Public Domain

Gregory, Justice,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent. OCGA § 16-1-7 (b) provides: “If the several crimes arising from the same conduct are known to the proper prosecuting officer at the time of commencing the prosecution and are within the jurisdiction of a single court, they must be prosecuted in a single prosecution except as provided in subsection (c) of this code section.” (Subsection (c) authorizes the court in the interest of justice to order two or more charges tried separately.)
In my view when a criminal conviction is reversed on appeal for error committed at the trial, and a new trial is granted to the defendant, there is but a single prosecution. To hold otherwise would mean a criminal defendant who loses at trial but wins on appeal goes free, much as is done in the English system. But our system is entirely different. It allows for new trials and there is nothing in OCGA § 16-1-7 (b) to cause us to hold otherwise.
*385Decided April 16, 1985 —
Rehearing denied May 28, 1985.
Michael Edward Bergin, for appellant.
Lewis R. Slaton, District Attorney, Joseph J. Drolet, Assistant District Attorney, Michael J. Bowers, Attorney General, for appellee.