Court Opinion

ID: 9594478
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 00:30:26.662202+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:31:29.271742
License: Public Domain

Fletcher, Justice,
dissenting.
The majority opinion omits the critical fact in this case: the trial court ruled that the possession of a firearm by a convicted felon charge was not related to any murder charge. The effect of the majority opinion is to eliminate the bifurcation requirement in all murder cases in violation of a defendant’s constitutional right to due process. See U. S. Const., amend. XIV; Ga. Const., Art. I, Sec. I, Par. I.
Marvin Kirk Jones moved to bifurcate the trial on Count 6 from the trial on the other five counts, arguing that the charge on possession of a firearm by a convicted felon was unrelated to any felony murder charge because the state had specified aggravated assault as the underlying felony. The trial court denied the motion, but in the jury charge instructed the jury to consider Count 6 separately from the other five counts because it was not related.2
1. In Head v. State, 253 Ga. 429 (322 SE2d 228) (1984), this court recognized the prejudice to defendants when prior unrelated convictions are introduced at trial that have nothing to do with any element of the charge except the “forbidden . . . realm of character and propensity for violent crimes.” Id. at 431. As a result, this court established procedures that would permit the admission of prior convictions yet protect the rights of the accused. Although three judges thought that the trial on the possession charge should be severed and held before a different jury, a majority concluded that bifurcation would satisfy due process. Under Head, if the charge of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon is unrelated to another count, the trial court should bifurcate the proceedings so that the jury should decide *143the more serious charge first, then undertake to decide the possession of firearms charge.
The facts in this case meet the requirements for bifurcation under Head. Although Jones’ prior conviction for possession of cocaine was material to the firearm possession charge, it was irrelevant to the murder charge, as the trial court ruled. The only purpose for trying the firearm possession count during the murder trial was to prejudice Jones by introducing evidence that he was a convicted felon. Moreover, the evidence was harmful given Jones’ theory that he was working as a confidential drug informant and shot the victim in self-defense. Because evidence of Jones’ prior criminal record was not material to the murder charges and was prejudicial, the felony murder conviction should be reversed.
2. The majority opinion eliminates the requirement of bifurcation in any murder trial through a broad reading of an example used in Head. The court in Head concluded that bifurcation was not needed in cases
where the offense of murder and possession are charged in one indictment, and the possession charge might conceivably become the underlying felony to support a felony murder conviction on the malice murder count of the indictment.
Id. at 432.
This example does not apply here. Jones was indicted for both malice murder and felony murder. The trial court instructed the jury that if it found Jones not guilty of malice murder, it was to consider the felony murder charge under Count 2. As part of the felony murder charge, the trial court defined the offense of aggravated assault, the underlying felony listed in the indictment. These facts alone indicate that the possession charge could not “conceivably become the underlying felony to support a felony murder conviction on the malice murder count of the indictment.” No jury would spontaneously consider the possession charge as an underlying felony to felony murder when the indictment included a separate felony murder count with a different underlying felony. The facts in this case, however, are even stronger because the trial court directed the jury that it could not consider Count 6 along with any other count. Therefore, the trial court concluded as a matter of law that the possession charge was not material to the more serious charge of murder. Given this conclusion, it is irrelevant that it is “plausible” that a possession offense could support a felony murder conviction on the malice murder count. Due process requires more than plausibility, particularly when the record demonstrates that the “plausible” was impossible. Where the trial court has instructed the jury that the firearm possession charge could *144not be considered as part of any other charge, it is inconceivable that a jury would ignore its instructions and consider the possession charge as the underlying felony for felony murder on any count of the indictment.
Decided March 13, 1995.
John L. Tracy, for appellant.
Britt R. Priddy, District Attorney, Michael J. Bowers, Attorney General, Susan V. Boleyn, Senior Assistant Attorney General, Paige R. Whitaker, Assistant Attorney General, for appellee.
I would hold that bifurcation is required when the indictment lists malice murder and felony murder as alternative murder counts and the underlying felony on the felony murder count is a felony other than possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. A failure to bifurcate in this situation violates due process.
I am authorized to state that Presiding Justice Benham and Justice Thompson join this dissent.

 The trial court stated:
[N]ow, the fact here in Count Number Six, that mentions that he is a convicted felon. That has nothing to do with the other charges against him, the other five counts. You will not consider that as having anything to do with the other counts. In other words, that fact has nothing to do with the other counts. You consider the other counts separately from that count... but in this Count Number Six, that does not have anything to do with your other counts. That is considered separately.