Court Opinion

ID: 9567328
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 19:52:21.816522+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T10:00:32.794534
License: Public Domain

Beasley, Chief Judge,
concurring in part and dissenting in part.
I concur in Divisions 1 and 2. With respect to Division 3, the question is not like the question which was ruled properly excluded in Pugh v. State, 260 Ga. 874, 875 (2) (401 SE2d 270) (1991).
In Pugh, the expert was not permitted to answer whether defendant shot her husband in self-defense. That was the ultimate question, as it is here, and the jury did not need the expert’s opinion on that as though the expert was a thirteenth juror.
In this case, the expert held a doctorate in social psychology, was an expert on the battered woman syndrome, and had evaluated several hundred women in this regard. She evaluated defendant, using a number of diagnostic tools, and concluded that she “had and has a severe case of the battered woman syndrome” and also “a very strong case of the post traumatic stress disorder.” Symptoms included: “a *343great deal of fear for her life during her relationship with Mr. Jenkins,” her husband. After extensive testimony, the question at issue was asked. The defendant sought to elicit the expert’s opinion as to whether defendant believed, at the time of the shooting, that she was defending her life.
Decided December 5, 1995
Robert L. Wadkins, for appellant.
Douglas C. Pullen, District Attorney, Roger H. Anderson, Assistant District Attorney, for appellee.
This is not the ultimate issue and is quite different from asking whether it was the expert’s opinion that defendant shot the victim in self-defense. That was the properly excluded question in Pugh. The expert’s training, experience, research, and extensively performed evaluation of defendant qualified her to reach an opinion on the state of defendant’s mind at the time of the shooting. This was beyond the ken of the average juror, who would be hard pressed to draw their own conclusion as to the belief defendant held when she committed the act. Defendant was entitled to present the aid of the expert to assist the jury. Smith v. State, 247 Ga. 612, 619 (277 SE2d 678) (1981).