Court Opinion

ID: 9626853
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 08:25:38.800277+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:06:34.637145
License: Public Domain

Bell, Chief Judge,
dissenting.
I dissent from the holding that the charge on flight was authorized by the evidence. This charge must find its evidentiary support if at all in the defendant’s own testimony. He testified that after stopping his vehicle the alleged victim got out of his car and commenced walking "up the by-pass”; and then "I had to wait for two passing vehicles to pass and I pulled off and I went up where the turn is there at Webb and Crawford and I turned and went back to where I work.” This is the sum total of the evidence. All it showed is that the defendant was going to his place of work. The issue of flight arises only when a person accused of the commission of crime flees to avoid arrest and imprisonment. Smith v. State, 106 Ga. 673 (32 *504SE 851). This evidence cannot conceivably raise any issue of flight. As no issue was raised by the evidence, it was error to charge on this subject. The question of defendant’s guilt or innocence was a close one under the facts presented. Accordingly, it is obvious that this erroneous charge was harmful to defendant. I would reverse the judgment and authorize a new trial.