Court Opinion

ID: 9588832
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 23:39:10.986444+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:01:00.344573
License: Public Domain

Deen, Presiding Judge,
concurring in part and dissenting in part.
I fully concur in Divisions 1 through 6 of the majority opinion and in the judgment of reversal. I am in complete agreement with that part of Division 7 which finds there was no corroboration of the appellant’s identity and participation in the crime as is required under West v. State, 232 Ga. 861 (209 SE2d 195), and Sanders v. State, 46 Ga. App. 175 (2) (167 SE 207). What I dissent from is the majority’s holding that it was error to overrule the appellant’s motion for directed verdict. The appellant cites as error both the denial of his motion for directed verdict and also the denial of his motion for new trial. I disagree with the majority and would hold no error as to the directed verdict but that the motion for new trial should have been granted.
My only disagreement with the majority is over the application of Code Ann. § 27-1802. That Code section contemplates a directed verdict of acquittal when there is no conflict in the evidence and when all reasonable deductions and inferences therefrom shall demand a "not guilty” verdict; the Merino decision (230 Ga. 604), cited by the majority, holds that in such a case it becomes the duty of the trial judge to direct a verdict of acquittal. It is my *923position that Code Ann. § 27-1802 should be strictly construed and I believe Merino supports this interpretation: "We therefore hold that it constitutes reversible error for the trial court to refuse to direct a verdict of acquittal where there is absolutely no conflict in the evidence and the verdict of acquittal is demanded as a matter of law.” 230 Ga. 605. (Emphasis supplied.) As I view Code Ann. § 27-1802, a two-prong test for a directed verdict is there envisioned — there must be (1) absolutely no conflict in the evidence and (2) that evidence must demand an acquittal. As to the first element of the test, the accomplice’s testimony was corroborated in many respects which were in conflict with the appellant’s story and which would have shown the appellant to have been at or near the scene of the crime during the evening of the burglary. In other words, there was a conflict in the evidence as to the length of time the appellant was in the company of the confessed burglars and whether or not the appellant was ever on the grounds of the schoolhouse. While this testimony is not sufficient to convict, it does represent a conflict in the evidence. As to the second element of the test, I believe that the uncorroborated testimony of the accomplice does not justify conviction and requires a reversal but does not demand a directed verdict of acquittal, in view of the conflict in the evidence.
The appellant here has cited as error both the denial of his motion for directed verdict and his motion for new trial. Because I believe Code Ann. § 27-1802 should be strictly construed and because I do not find this case to be within the precise language of this Code section, I would affirm the trial judge on his denial of the former motion but reverse on his denial of the latter one.
I am authorized to state that Judge Evans concurs in the result only of this dissent.