Court Opinion

ID: 9580416
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 22:04:44.970448+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:36:15.861569
License: Public Domain

Banke, Presiding Judge,
concurring in part and dissenting in part.
I concur fully with the affirmance of the appellant’s conviction of obstructing an officer, it being clear beyond dispute that the arresting officers had probable cause to believe the appellant had committed an aggravated assault against his wife. Indeed, based on the circumstances apparent at the scene, the officers were not merely authorized to arrest the appellant for aggravated assault, they would have been remiss had they not done so. See generally OCGA § 17-4-20 (a). I cannot agree, however, that the evidence presented at trial was sufficient to support a conviction of aggravated assault.
The appellant was convicted and sentenced to 20 years imprisonment for an offense which both he and his wife, the only witnesses to the incident, testified never occurred. The wife’s testimony at trial was to the effect that she pulled a gun on the appellant during the course of a domestic quarrel in their home; that the appellant struggled with her for possession of the weapon; that during the course of the struggle the two of them fell across a coffee table, knocking a pair of scissors to the floor; that as they continued to struggle, the appellant “got the scissors and put them in my back and tried to take the gun away from me”; and that after she put down the gun, he put down the scissors. Although the wife indicated that the scissors might *781have been responsible for the wound in her back, she expressed some uncertainty about this, stating that the wound might also have been caused by “some of the glass when I fell on the table. . . .”
Decided July 10, 1987
Rehearing dismissed July 23, 1987.
Shane M. Geeter, for appellant.
The majority chooses to disregard this testimony, characterizing it as a “recantation” of the witness’ earlier statement to police officers that the appellant had “stabbed” her with the scissors. It strikes me, however, that the wife’s trial testimony may more appropriately be characterized as an explanation or amplification of her earlier statement than as a “recantation” of it. In both versions, the wife maintained that she had been stabbed by the scissors or by some other object during the course of a domestic quarrel; but while her statement at the scene, standing alone, suggests that the appellant deliberately assaulted her with the scissors, her testimony at trial reveals that he in fact used the scissors defensively rather than offensively and that the stabbing may even have been accidental. Under such circumstances, the wife’s out-of-court statement constitutes a slender reed indeed upon which to base a felony conviction.
It has, of course, long been the rule in this state that the jury is obliged, where possible, to reconcile any apparent conflicts in the testimony so as to make each witness speak the truth. See, e.g., Stuckey v. State, 213 Ga. 525 (2) (100 SE2d 189) (1957); Cotton v. State, 81 Ga. App. 753, 755 (59 SE2d 741) (1950). Moreover, the sufficiency of the evidence in a criminal case may no longer be evaluated under the “any evidence” standard; rather, it must appear that the evidence as a whole was sufficient to enable a rational trier of fact to find the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. See generally Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U. S. 307, 319 (99 SC 2781, 61 LE2d 560) (1979). I do not believe that the evidence in this case, when viewed in its entirety, supports the appellant’s conviction and 20-year sentence for aggravated assault, and I would consequently reverse that portion of the judgment. This court’s decision in Patterson v. State, 181 Ga. App. 68 (351 SE2d 503) (1986), relied on by the majority, does not support the affirmance of the aggravated assault conviction in the present case, as the offense at issue there was witnessed not only by the victim but also by two deputy sheriffs.
I am authorized to state that Chief Judge Birdsong and Judge Sognier join in this opinion.
*782Joseph H. Briley, District Attorney, for appellee.