Court Opinion

ID: 9581278
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 22:13:14.914148+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:36:49.254443
License: Public Domain

Weltner, Justice,
dissenting.
I dissent as to Division 7 and to the reversal of the death penalty.
By its verdict, the jury found Page guilty of the murder of Henrietta Page, guilty of the murder of Dorothy Ann Howard, and guilty of aggravated battery upon Terry Howard. The same jury then imposed the death penalty, finding that the murder of Dorothy Ann Howard had been committed “while the offender was engaged in the commission of another Capital felony to wit: Murder or Aggravated battery upon another victim.”
Page shot three people. Because one of them did not die, his crime against Terry Howard was aggravated battery. The commission of either one of the other two crimes of which he was convicted (the murder of Henrietta Page and the aggravated battery upon Terry Howard) would warrant the imposition of the death penalty under OCGA § 17-10-30 (b) (2).
Mere inartfulness of the jury’s sentencing verdict should not entitle Page to retrial. There can be no doubt that the jury found, in its second verdict, exactly the same things which it found in its first verdict — murder and aggravated battery.