Court Opinion

ID: 9602842
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 02:00:45.047959+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T11:45:59.930153
License: Public Domain

Bowles, Justice,
dissenting in part and specially concurring in part.
I respectfully dissent from the holding in Division 1 of the opinion because it is my firm belief that defendant has waived his right to attack the composition of the grand jury in this case. Counsel was appointed for the defendant prior to the grand jury indictment, and voluntarily elected not to make a pre-indictment challenge to the composition of that body. When he elects to do this he has waived his right to later object. Estes v. State, 232 Ga. 703, 708 (208 SE2d 806) (1974); McHan v. State, 232 Ga. 470 (207 SE2d 457) (1974); Sanders v. State, 235 Ga. 425 (219 SE2d 768) (1975); Williams v. State, 210 Ga. 665 (82 SE2d 217) (1954); Cobb v. State, 218 Ga. 10 (126 SE2d 231) (1962). The majority holds that based on the testimony of the attorney’s reason for not making that challenge, he did not exercise a lawyer’s proper function and duty to determine whether it is to the best interest of his client to raise the issue of systematic exclusion. An examination of the record indicates that this same lawyer very adequately represented the defendant in a very difficult case. Following the first conviction he successfully prosecuted an appeal in this court and obtained for his client a new trial. No lawyer is perfect. It is easy to look back, put the lawyer on the stand and cross examine him about his reasons for doing or not doing a particular act in the course of trial. What the lawyer says or does not say to his client is a confidential matter which cannot be penetrated under our rules of evidence, without consent. Who can say what the lawyer has in mind, whether he be a public defender, appointed counsel, or employed counsel. In any event, when faced with a difficult situation, he might realize that a grand jury which is to consider his client’s case may be illegally constituted. Can he then sit idly by, allow the indictment to be returned, go to trial, lose his case, allow the defendant to employ other counsel and have the verdict and judgment reversed because of *170what the defendant’s lawyer might have done but did not do? There is an old saying to the effect, "Don’t give a reason for what you did until you have to. By the time you have to, you may have thought of a better reason.” If the majority opinion is followed we will be in the position of judging or second guessing the acts of capable counsel which I feel we should not do. This is a thicket from which we will not be able to extricate ourselves, and we will not be able to lay down rules or standards that can be followed with any degree of practicality. Additionally, the defendant and his subsequent attorney have not shown any actual prejudice by his first counsel’s failure to make a timely challenge to the array of the grand jury which indicted him. In order to excuse a waiver resulting from his failure to assert an objection in timely fashion he must show prejudice. This he has not done. Francis v. Henderson, 425 U. S. 536 (96 SC 1708, 48 LE2d 149) (1976); Dumont v. Estelle, 513 F2d 793 (5th Cir.) (1975).
As to Division 2 of the majority opinion, I concur in the judgment for the reason that I feel the percentages illustrated by the defendant’s motion, based on disparity, shifted the burden to the state under Turner v. Fouche, 396 U. S. 346 (90 SC 532, 24 LE2d 567). At this point the state did not, in my opinion, make the necessary showing contradicting this prima facie case. With this, I suppose it will be necessary for the jury commissioners to revise the boxes again, even though their prior efforts in this respect appear bona fide. Mathematical perfections are never going to be obtainable in this important segment of our court proceedings. If we choose jury panels, in keeping with the Georgia statutes as they now exist; obtain the help of competent legal counsel in doing so; and keep adequate records of all procedures followed, I believe we can obtain constitutionally acceptable juries, representing a cross section of all citizens of our communities. These should not be subject to attack, even though the results obtained may not be in the same mathematical proportions as the percentages of male or female, black or white, shown by census records relate to the population as a whole. Those who attack our system, demand perfection but contribute little, except criticism. The goal is a reasonable goal not a mathematical result. *171All law and justice must be based on reason.