Court Opinion

ID: 9625387
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 07:39:10.112132+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:28:07.586411
License: Public Domain

BLACKBURN, Presiding Judge,
concurring specially.
I fully concur with the excellent opinion authored by Judge Barnes. I write separately because this case uniquely demonstrates the level to which the protection of criminal defendants has risen by court rulings on criminal procedure. As the majority analysis demonstrates, we even place the responsibility to ensure the defendant does not harm himself upon the State. Criminal prosecution has evolved into a gauntlet of defendants’ “rights” through which the State must pass. While every other citizen is charged with knowledge of the law and with a duty not to injure himself, we do not judge criminal defendants by this same standard.
They often manipulate the system, as Simpson has attempted to do. This college graduate refused counsel. However, counsel was still required to remain at the defendant’s disposal throughout the trial at State expense. After Simpson’s conviction, he appealed, based solely on his own poor choices for which he seeks to blame the State. He caused additional taxpayers’ resources to be expended in attempting to correct his own errors. The case had an appropriate result based on the evidence.
After conviction, Simpson began the appeal process. Those who are on bond, pending appeal, remain free and are not punished until a ruling has been made on the appeal. Incarcerated defendants often have free legal services, a law library, and plenty of time. The process is often initiated whether or not the trial court committed error, for *115there is sometimes no cost to the defendants, and they have nothing to lose.
Decided May 14, 1999.
D. Kent Shelton, for appellant.
Patrick H. Head, District Attorney, Maria B. Golick, Debra H. Bernes, Nancy I. Jordan, Assistant District Attorneys, Carolyn M. Hodges, for appellee.
Without question, the appellate courts must protect the rights of Georgia citizens by reviewing the actions of the trial courts and correcting errors where found. We should, however, seek to minimize the abuse of the appellate process which occurs routinely. In the handling of criminal prosecutions, the courts should hold defendants to the levels of knowledge and conduct one would expect from a reasonable, educated adult, and stop dealing with them on a level more appropriate for the juvenile courts. Criminal defendants are often dealt with like children, who are protected individuals. Defendants enjoy the status of “victim,” as to criminal procedure, unless the State can prove otherwise. It is time for the appellate courts to treat adults as adults, even if they are criminal defendants, so that trial judges simply deal fairly with them with no parens patriae responsibility.
I am authorized to state that Senior Appellate Judge Harold R. Banke concurs in this opinion.