Court Opinion

ID: 9847152
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 03:54:48.392169+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:17:01.976544
License: Public Domain

Smith, Presiding Justice,
dissenting.
I dissent because of the harmless error findings. It is difficult for me to see where harmless error findings are harmless to an appellant. We have been gravitating more and more to harmless error. By stacking harmless error upon harmless error to uphold convictions we are shifting the scales of justice in favor of the state and against the appellant. This Court in Hess Oil &c. Corp. v. Nash, 226 Ga. 706, 709 (177 SE2d 70) (1970), stated:
The duty of the appellate court is to correct errors alleged to have been made in the trial court and not to manufacture them. As was said in Nicholas v. Yellow Cab Co., 180 NE2d 279, 286, “Any error shown upon the record must stand or fall on its own merits and is not aided by the accumulative effect of other claims of error.”
I believe that the state has a duty to provide each criminal defendant with a fair trial. One begins to wonder just how fair a trial is if harmless error begins to stack on harmless error. Perhaps it is time to reconsider the use of this rule. I realize that there are exceptions; this is not one of them.
I am authorized to state that Justice Weltner joins in this dissent.