Court Opinion

ID: 9581526
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 22:15:46.868615+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:37:02.297236
License: Public Domain

Benham, Judge,
dissenting.
Appellant seeks return of the firearms to him rather than to his *550designated agent, contending that the strictures of OCGA § 16-11-131 are not applicable to him because he is not a convicted felon. “Felony” is defined in OCGA § 16-11-131 (a) (1) as “any offense punishable by imprisonment for a term of one year or more ...” Illegal possession of diazepam fits within the definition of felony. The question is whether the action taken on appellant’s plea of nolo contendere under the First Offender Act amounts to a conviction so as to deprive him of the right to possess a firearm.
Decided April 3, 1987
Roman A. DeVille, for appellant.
Robert E. Wilson, District Attorney, James W. Richter, Barbara Conroy, Assistant District Attorneys, for appellee.
This court has held that one who has been sentenced after entering a plea of nolo contendere “has been adjudged guilty and convicted of said offense . . .” Nelson v. State, 87 Ga. App. 644, 648 (75 SE2d 39) (1953). “[A] sentence based on a plea of nolo contendere is a conviction [Cits.] . . .” Windsor Forest v. Rocker, 121 Ga. App. 773 (2) (175 SE2d 65) (1970). Because I have been unable to find Georgia case law on the ramifications of the entry of a plea under the First Offender Act on a defendant’s ability to possess a firearm, I have turned to the decision of the U. S. Supreme Court in Dickerson v. New Banner Institute, 460 U. S. 103 (103 SC 986, 74 LE2d 845) (1983). In construing the applicability of the firearms disabilities contained in the Omnibus Crime Control & Safe Streets Act of 1968 (18 USCA § 921 et seq.), the Supreme Court equated entry and notation of a guilty plea, followed by the imposition of a sentence of probation pursuant to a law similar to the First Offender Act, with being “convicted.” Combining the holdings of Nelson, supra, and Windsor Forest, supra, with that of the U. S. Supreme Court in Dickerson, supra, I conclude that the entry of a plea of guilty or nolo contendere under the First Offender Act, followed by the imposition of a sentence of probation is, for purposes of OCGA § 16-11-131, tantamount to being “convicted.” Having been convicted of a felony by pleading nolo contendere and being sentenced therefor under the First Offender Act, appellant is not entitled to possess a firearm, and the guns at issue herein should not be returned to him.
I am authorized to state that Presiding Judge Deen, Presiding Judge McMurray, and Judge Sognier join in this dissent.