Court Opinion

ID: 9852614
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 05:33:39.985606+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:22:30.675945
License: Public Domain

Fletcher, Justice,
dissenting.
This court has long held that “insofar as the participation and identity of the accused is concerned, there must be independent corroborating evidence which tends to connect the accused with the crime.” West v. State, 232 Ga. 861, 865 (209 SE2d 195) (1974). In Bradford v. State, 261 Ga. 833 (412 SE2d 534) (1992), we emasculated this rule by holding for the first time that a similarity between two crimes was sufficient evidence to corroborate the testimony of an alleged accomplice. There is no support in our case law for the proposition that “the similarity between the crimes at issue” provides the necessary corroborative evidence to an accomplice’s testimony. Rather than compounding the error committed in Bradford I, I would overrule Division 1 of that opinion and reverse the conviction of Tony Alonzo Bradford for the aggravated assault and armed robbery of Jonathan Jowers, the gas station clerk.3
In this case, the state presented no evidence, other than the accomplice’s testimony, that establishes the defendant’s identity and participation in the shooting and armed robbery at the gas station. A jury should not be able to infer a defendant’s guilt in a crime based solely on its finding that he is guilty of another “similar” crime. Because there are no independent corroborating facts or circumstances to connect the defendant with the crimes at the gas station, I dissent.

 Since there is sufficient corroboration of the accomplice’s testimony to directly connect the defendant to the murder and armed robbery of Joseph Fielding at the convenience store, I agree that the defendant’s convictions involving those two crimes should be affirmed.