Court Opinion

ID: 9616601
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 04:48:03.989141+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:03:59.066712
License: Public Domain

Hill, Justice,
concurring specially.
I concur in Divisions 1 and 2 of the opinion of the court. I am unable to concur in Division 3, which holds that where a person commits murder in the commission of a felony (Code Ann. § 26-1101 (b)), the felony (armed robbery in this case) is a lesser included offense of felony murder under Code Ann. § 26-505 and conviction of both offenses is proscribed under the provisions of Code Ann. § 26-506.
However, I agree that under the facts of this case the armed robbery conviction should be set aside, and I therefore concur in the judgment. My reasons for concurring in the judgment setting aside the armed robbery conviction are as follows:
The record shows that petitioner was indicted for the murder of Ray Howard while in the commission of the armed robbery of Ray Howard and Ernest Akins. He was tried, found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment on November 30, 1970.
Subsequently, petitioner was indicted, tried, found guilty of armed robbery and sentenced to ten years imprisonment on June 2,1971. The findings of fact by the court below show that the armed robbery charge "arose from the same sequence of events resulting in Howard’s death.” It is not clear from the record whether the subsequent armed robbery charge was armed robbery as to Howard, or as to Akins, or as to both.
However, the court below found that"... the district attorney was aware of the commission of the crime of armed robbery at the time of the murder prosecution. Further, there is nothing to indicate that the murder and armed robbery prosecutions were severed 'in the interest *335of justice.’ ” The court below declined to apply Code Ann. § 26-506 (b).
That Code section, which I would apply here, provides as follows (Code Ann. § 26-506 (b)): "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).” Subsection (c) provides that when two or more crimes are charged as required by subsection (b), the court in the interest of justice may order that one or more of such charges be tried separately.
As found by the court below, petitioner was not charged jointly with felony murder and armed robbery, with the armed robbery being tried separately in the interests of justice. He was indicted, tried, and convicted for felony murder. Thereafter he was indicted, tried and convicted of the felony which was known to the prosecutor at the time of commencing the murder prosecution.
Thus, in my view, the subsequent armed robbery prosecution was prohibited by Code Ann. § 26-506 (b). Where several crimes arising from the same conduct are known to the prosecutor at the time of commencing the prosecution and are within the jurisdiction of a single court, the prosecutor cannot withhold some such crimes from the prosecution for possible later prosecution.
Although I reach the same result as the majority of the court, I am unable to reach that result by the reasoning utilized by the majority. My reasons are as follows:
Petitioner appealed his murder conviction. Atkins v. State, 228 Ga. 578 (187 SE2d 132). The record in that case shows that the murder victim, Ray Howard, was owner and manager of the Amvets Club in Statesboro, and that one Ernest Akins was an employee there. Akins testified at the murder trial that the defendant (petitioner) and three companions entered the Club, that the defendant pulled a pistol and shot the victim, and that about $600 was taken from the victim and $30 from the employee, witness Akins. The victim died.
For me, that constitutes two armed robberies and one *336murder. The majority however holds that these two armed robberies are lesser included offenses of the felony murder. I can only assume that if one or more customers had been robbed at the same time, all the armed robberies would, according to the majority view, have been lesser included offenses of the felony murder. I am unable to agree that this is so.
I do not read Code Ann. § 26-505 as saying that, when applied to the facts of this case, the armed robbery of witness Akins was a lesser included offense of the murder of Howard. If petitioner had been found innocent of Howard’s murder at the first trial, in my view the jury could not properly have returned, pursuant to Code Ann. § 26-505, a verdict of guilty of armed robbery of Akins in that case. He was not charged in the first indictment with the armed robbery of Akins; he was charged with the murder of Howard while in commission of the armed robberies of Howard and Akins.
However, I read Code Ann. § 26-506 (a) as saying that petitioner could have been charged, tried, and convicted, in the first instance, with the felony murder of Howard and the armed robbery of Akins. That subsection provides: "When the same conduct of an accused may establish the commission of more than one crime, the accused may be prosecuted for each crime. He may not, however, be convicted of more than one crime if (1) one crime is included in the other, or (2) the crimes differ only in that one is defined to prohibit a designated kind of conduct generally and the other to prohibit a specific instance of such conduct.”
In my view, the armed robbery of Akins was not included in the murder of Howard (as noted above) and the crimes of murder of Howard and robbery of Akins are different in kind, not in definition. Therefore, Code Ann. § 26-506 (a) would, in my view, have permitted petitioner’s prosecution, and conviction, of both crimes, the same conduct of the accused establishing the commission of both Howard’s murder and Akins’ armed robbery.
However, as noted above, because petitioner was not prosecuted in the first instance for both crimes, in my view Code Ann. § 26-506 (b) prohibits the subsequent prosecution of petitioner for the armed robbery of Akins.
*337In concurring with the majority, I express no opinion as to whether or not the armed robbery of Howard was a lesser included offense in the felony murder of Howard.
I am authorized to state that Chief Justice Nichols joins me in this special concurrence.