Court Opinion

ID: 9626024
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 07:59:34.25231+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:06:19.721661
License: Public Domain

Carley, Presiding Judge,
concurring specially.
I concur fully in Divisions 1 and 2 of the majority opinion. I also concur in the majority’s conclusion in Division 3 that the new rule announced by the Supreme Court of Georgia in Chandler v. State, 261 Ga. 402 (405 SE2d 669) (1991) does not apply in this case because *739the evidence raised no viable defense of justification by the defendant.
Decided October 6, 1992.
W. Edward Nethery, for appellant.
Robert E. Wilson, District Attorney, Barbara B. Conroy, Elisabeth G. MacNamara, Jeffrey H. Brickman, Assistant District Attorneys, for appellee.
However, I do not agree with the further holding of the majority that “[a]ny altercation between [the defendant] and the victim or between the victim and a third party following the date of the events which comprise the elements of this case would not be relevant.” I do not believe the Chandler rule applies only to acts occurring prior to the date of the alleged crime with which the defendant is charged. Although Chandler itself is silent on this issue, the Supreme Court in Chandler based its new rule on Justice Weltner’s concurrence in Lolley v. State, 259 Ga. 605, 607-610 (385 SE2d 285) (1989). As is made clear in that concurrence, the knowledge of the victim of the defendant’s propensity to do violence at the time of the incident at issue is not necessarily determinative. In one of the examples given by Justice Weltner in Lolley, a “ruffian approaches a stranger, and is killed by him. There are no eyewitnesses to the homicide. The defendant relates that the decedent advanced upon him in a drunken and enraged state, threatening him with mayhem. The decedent had no weapon. At trial, the defendant, who had no knowledge of the decedent before the killing, offers evidence of his violent nature, through specific acts of violence against third persons. Here the principal question is the credibility of the defendant. Did it happen the way he related it? And why would the decedent make an unprovoked advance upon the defendant?” (Emphasis supplied.) Lolley v. State, supra, 609 (3 [b] [ii]). (Concurrence of Justice Weltner.) Thus, if the procedural and substantive requirements of Chandler are otherwise met, I believe that evidence of violent acts by a victim are admissible, regardless of when they occurred.