Court Opinion

ID: 9567209
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 19:50:36.373+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T10:00:25.387602
License: Public Domain

Deen, Judge,
concurring specially. I agree that this case falls within, and must therefore be controlled by, the principles enunciated in Stephens v. State, 127 Ga. App. 416 (193 SE2d 870). Stephens overruled a long line of cases dealing with the quantum of circumstantial evidence necessary to "exclude every other reasonable hypothesis” in cases where the defendant’s conviction for drunk driving rests on circumstantial evidence only and where, although the evidence demands a finding that he is intoxicated at some undetermined period of time after a wreck there is no evidence either way to show whether *640he was intoxicated before or at the time of the wreck. Waters v. State, 90 Ga. App. 329 (83 SE2d 25) is a case in point where it was held that the evidence "does not, when considered in connection with . . . the absence of any evidence negativing the possibility of his having drunk the liquor during the time he was absent from the car [after the accident], exclude every reasonable hypothesis save that of the guilt of the accused.”
Waters was overruled in Stephens, and Stephens specifically holds that the circumstances "were sufficient to authorize the jury to conclude that the defendant had ingested the alcohol prior to the accident (there was nothing to indicate that he had done so afterward).” In other words, the prior rule in this state was that where, on a charge of drunk driving, a period of time elapsed between the time the defendant ceased driving and the time he was apprehended, the burden was on the state to show the defendant was drunk, not only when apprehended, but also at the time he was driving. This meant placing some burden on the state to negative the possibility of his having drunk sufficient liquor to intoxicate him after he ceased driving and before he was apprehended. Judge Evans’ dissenting opinion is eminently correct under this rule. But Stephens has placed the burden on the defendant to show that his intoxication occurred after the wreck and not before. Proof that the defendant was intoxicated when arrested raises no presumption that he was intoxicated an unknown period of time prior thereto. "Although the rule of evidence is well established that a status once proved to exist continues until there is proof of a change or adequate cause for assuming there has been a change, [Cit.], there is, however, no presumption that a present proven status existed in the past.” McCluskey v. American Oil Co., 224 Ga. 253, 254 (161 SE2d 271). Upon reflection (although I concurred in Stephens at the time) I consider the old rule, in a case depending entirely on *641circumstantial evidence, to be the sounder requirement in order to exclude every reasonable hypothesis save that of guilt. But I recognize it is no longer the law, and accordingly concur in the judgment of affirmance.