22 results for 'judge:"Boggs"'.
J. Boggs finds that the trial court properly convicted defendant of murder and arson and correctly denied defendant's motion to disqualify the district attorney. Although the district attorney previously served as defendant's public defender, the prior representations were totally unrelated to the murder prosecution. Sufficient evidence was presented to support defendant's convictions and to show that skeletal remains belonged to the victim. The trial court correctly refused to allow defendant to question witnesses about other fires that occurred at a co-indictee's and a defense witness's homes while defendant was incarcerated since the evidence was not relevant. Affirmed.
Court: Georgia Supreme Court, Judge: Boggs, Filed On: April 30, 2024, Case #: S24A0013, Categories: Murder, Arson
J. Boggs finds that the trial court properly convicted defendant of murder, theft by taking and giving false information to a police officer. Sufficient evidence was presented to support defendant's convictions, including evidence that defendant intended to deprive the victim of his car and that defendant either pushed the victim out of the car or that the victim jumped from the car in fear for his life. The trial court correctly denied defendant's motion to suppress evidence of his pre-trial, post-arrest police interview and defendant failed to show that several evidentiary objections were improperly overruled. Defendant has not shown that he was prejudiced by his trial counsel's allegedly deficient performance. Affirmed.
Court: Georgia Supreme Court, Judge: Boggs, Filed On: March 5, 2024, Case #: S23A1201, Categories: Ineffective Assistance, Murder, Theft
J. Boggs finds that the trial court properly convicted defendant of murder, burglary, kidnapping, child cruelty and firearm offenses. The trial court correctly rejected defendant's speedy trial claim because defendant was more to blame for the delay than the state and was not prejudiced by the delay. There was a period of one year and seven months between the order granting defendant a new trial and the start of his fourth trial. Defendant claimed the delay should be measured from his initial arrest to the start of the fourth trial--a time period of about 27 years--in light of the Brady violations by the state in his previous trials. Defendant entered a consent order and thereby waived his argument that periods before the order should be included in the length of the delay. The trial court correctly excluded evidence of alleged police and prosecutorial bias against defendant. Affirmed.
Court: Georgia Supreme Court, Judge: Boggs, Filed On: March 5, 2024, Case #: S23A1091, Categories: Murder, Speedy Trial
J. Boggs finds the lower court erroneously granted the scrap metal recycling facility's motion for a prescriptive easement over the parcel of land owned by Norfolk Southern. The facility's claims are preempted by federal law. Although the recycler claims it does not want exclusive control over the parcel, the land is fenced in and inaccessible to the railroad without a key to the gate, which renders any taking by the company an unreasonable burden on railroading; therefore, the easement is rescinded and the case remanded. Reversed.
Court: 6th Circuit, Judge: Boggs, Filed On: February 26, 2024, Case #: 22-4037, Categories: Property, Preemption, Transportation
J. Boggs finds that the trial court improperly convicted defendant of murder predicated on possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. Defendant's trial counsel did not understand the law governing a convicted felon's right to use a gun in self-defense and was deficient for failing to request a jury instruction on self-defense and failing to argue that self-defense applied to felony murder based on felon-in-possession. No reasonable attorney would have agreed with the trial court's response to a note from the injury indicating confusion about the application of self-defense to felony murder and felon-in-possession. However, defendant may be retried because the evidence against him was sufficient to authorize the conviction. Reversed in part.
Court: Georgia Supreme Court, Judge: Boggs, Filed On: February 20, 2024, Case #: S23A1042, Categories: Ineffective Assistance, Murder
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J. Boggs finds that the trial court properly convicted defendant of murder and other offenses. Sufficient evidence was presented to support defendant's convictions. The trial court did not abuse its discretion in overruling defendant's objection to the introduction of jail phone call recordings in which defendant tried to influence witnesses and the introduction of a GBI agent's expert testimony on gang terminology in the recordings. However, the trial court incorrectly failed to merge defendant's burglary and home invasion convictions. Defendant's armed robbery and theft by taking convictions also should have merged. Affirmed.
Court: Georgia Supreme Court, Judge: Boggs, Filed On: February 20, 2024, Case #: S23A1096, Categories: Murder, Sentencing
[Consolidated.] J. Boggs finds that the appeals court improperly ruled that the community health department commissioner applied the correct standard of review in reviewing the hearing officer's decision overturning the grant of the hospital's application for a certificate of need to establish a new radiation therapy service. The commissioner overturned the hearing officer's decision and granted the certificate of need. The appeals court incorrectly determined the meaning of the statutory phrase "competent substantial evidence." The phrase refers to evidence that is relevant to support a finding of fact. The case is remanded and the appeals court should first determine whether the commissioner complied with the statutory standard of review. Vacated.
Court: Georgia Supreme Court, Judge: Boggs, Filed On: February 20, 2024, Case #: S23G0405, Categories: Civil Procedure, Health Care
J. Boggs finds that the trial court improperly granted defendant's motion to suppress a statement he made to police while in a hospital which preceded his indictment for murder and other offenses. The trial court incorrectly found that defendant's statement was involuntary under the due process clause based on defendant's medical condition and the medication he was receiving after he had organs removed to treat an abdominal gunshot wound. A defendant's medical condition by itself is not sufficient to render a statement involuntary. There is no evidence of any coercive circumstances surrounding defendant's physical condition that would have made the statement involuntary. Reversed.
Court: Georgia Supreme Court, Judge: Boggs, Filed On: January 17, 2024, Case #: S23A0842, Categories: Murder, Due Process
J. Boggs finds that the trial court properly convicted defendant of murder and other offenses. Any error the trial court committed in admitting into evidence a custodial statement made by defendant in which he admitted to shooting the victim but said the shooting was accidental was harmless in light of another similar statement defendant made in a jailhouse phone call to his mother. Defendant failed to show that he was prejudiced by his trial counsel's allegedly deficient performance. Affirmed.
Court: Georgia Supreme Court, Judge: Boggs, Filed On: December 19, 2023, Case #: S23A0861, Categories: Murder
J. Boggs finds that the trial court properly convicted defendant of murder and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony. Defendant failed to show that his substantial rights were affected by the trial court's failure to give the jury an instruction on no duty to retreat. The trial court correctly gave the jury a sequential unanimity instruction on involuntary manslaughter as a lesser offense of murder. Defendant failed to show that he was prejudiced by his trial counsel's alleged deficiencies. Affirmed.
Court: Georgia Supreme Court, Judge: Boggs, Filed On: December 19, 2023, Case #: S23A0906, Categories: Ineffective Assistance, Murder, Jury Instructions
J. Boggs finds that the trial court properly convicted defendant of murder, robbery, street gang terrorism and other offenses. Defendant failed to show that the trial outcome was probably affected by the admission of evidence of his three prior misdemeanor convictions for simple battery. The evidence of defendant's guilt was overwhelming and he admitted that he shot the victim. Affirmed.
Court: Georgia Supreme Court, Judge: Boggs, Filed On: September 6, 2023, Case #: S23A0620, Categories: Murder, Robbery, Gangs
J. Boggs finds that the trial court properly convicted defendant of murder and other offenses. Sufficient evidence was presented to support defendant's convictions and to allow the jury to reject defendant's claim that he shot the victims in self defense. The trial court correctly refused to charge the jury on voluntary manslaughter and correctly denied defendant's motions for mistrial arising from the prosecutor's statements to the jury about defendant being in jail for more than two years before trial. The statements did not place defendant's character in issue. Affirmed.
Court: Georgia Supreme Court, Judge: Boggs, Filed On: September 6, 2023, Case #: S23A0736, Categories: Murder, Self Defense, Jury Instructions
J. Boggs finds the lower court properly granted the city's motion for summary judgment on First Amendment claims brought by the advertising company. While the content-based exceptions in its billboard ordinance are an improper restraint on speech, they are severable from the ordinance as a whole. As a result, the height, size and setback requirements of the ordinance remain in effect, and because the advertising company's proposed billboards do not meet those requirements, it cannot prevail on its claims and is not entitled to a variance. Affirmed.
Court: 6th Circuit, Judge: Boggs, Filed On: August 10, 2023, Case #: 21-1544, Categories: Constitution, First Amendment
J. Boggs finds the lower court properly granted the National Labor Relations Board's motion for a preliminary injunction to reinstate the fired Starbucks employees to their previous positions. The company's anti-union activities, which included closing the Memphis store early to prevent news coverage of union activities and the termination of the Memphis 7, undoubtedly chilled the speech of other employees. Although a unionization vote was successful even after the firings, the results of an election are insufficient to cure the chilling effect of the terminations, especially when a labor union is in its infancy, like the one at issue here. Affirmed.
Court: 6th Circuit, Judge: Boggs, Filed On: August 8, 2023, Case #: 22-5730, Categories: Employment, Labor / Unions, Injunction
J. Boggs finds that the lower court improperly denied a shopper’s motion to sanction Kroger for discovery violations or to compel discovery. The shipper sued over injuries sustained when he slipped and fell on a grape inside a Kroger store. The company failed to provide an incident report concerning the shopper’s claim, or information in incident reports regarding similar slip and falls. Reversed.
Court: Ohio Court Of Appeals, Judge: Boggs, Filed On: July 20, 2023, Case #: 2023-Ohio-2497, Categories: Discovery
J. Boggs grants defendant leave to file a delayed appeal of the lower court's decision to deny his DNA testing application relating to his convictions for aggravated burglary, aggravated robbery, kidnapping, rape, attempted rape and other related offenses. The state's argument that defendant likely knew of the trial court’s judgment before he filed his writ of procedendo petition is insufficient, because the trial court's denial of defendant's application for post-conviction DNA testing was a civil judgment that was not served to defendant in accordance with civil code.
Court: Ohio Court Of Appeals, Judge: Boggs, Filed On: July 13, 2023, Case #: 23AP-256, Categories: Dna
J. Boggs finds the trial court properly denied defendant's motion for a mistrial after prerecorded testimony from an expert witness regarding "the Chinese's" propensity to steal trade secrets was inadvertently played for the jury. Not only was the remark a single sentence taken from an entire deposition, the court also gave a limiting instruction prior to jury deliberations. Meanwhile, even though the trial court properly considered defendant's intended loss when it calculated her sentencing guidelines, its failure to differentiate between profits and sales stemming from her creation of a BPA-free can liner production facility in China had a significant effect on the guideline range under which she was sentenced; therefore, her sentence is vacated and the case is remanded for a proper intended loss calculation. Affirmed in part.
Court: 6th Circuit, Judge: Boggs, Filed On: July 11, 2023, Case #: 22-5442, Categories: Sentencing, Espionage
J. Boggs finds that the appeals court improperly overturned the trial court's decision granting defendant's motion to suppress evidence obtained during a search by a Kingsland police officer outside the Kingsland city limits in Camden County. The search led to defendant's arrest for a drug offense. The appeals court incorrectly found that the officer had authority to perform the stop and search because she had been deputized by the Camden County sheriff's office seven years earlier. A dispute exists as to whether the officer was still deputized when she arrested defendant. The appeals court is directed to remand the case to the trial court for clarification as to whether the ruling that the officer lacked authority to stop and search defendant was based on a finding that the officer was deputized for particular cases only. Vacated.
Court: Georgia Supreme Court, Judge: Boggs, Filed On: July 5, 2023, Case #: S22G1050, Categories: Drug Offender, Search
[Consolidated.] J. Boggs finds that the trial court properly convicted defendants of murder, participation in criminal street gang activity, aggravated assault and other offenses. Sufficient evidence was presented to support defendants' convictions. The trial court did not violate the continuing witness rule by allowing the jury to watch surveillance videos in the jury room during deliberations. The trial court correctly denied two defendants' motions for a mistrial based on the failure to exclude evidence found on one defendant's phone. Two defendants' motions to sever their trials from each other and from their co-defendants were also correctly denied. Any error the trial court committed in failing to give defendants' attorneys a chance to provide input on questions submitted by the jury via notes was harmless. Affirmed.
Court: Georgia Supreme Court, Judge: Boggs, Filed On: June 21, 2023, Case #: S23A0316, Categories: Jury, Murder, Gangs
[Consolidated.] J. Boggs finds that the trial courts properly dismissed the three voters' actions alleging that the voting system used in the Dec. 6, 2022 runoff election for a U.S. senate seat did not comply with Georgia law. The complaints failed to name any defendant and did not ask for a new runoff election or seek any relief with respect to the election. The voters also failed to serve any defendant. Affirmed.
Court: Georgia Supreme Court, Judge: Boggs, Filed On: June 21, 2023, Case #: S23A0583, Categories: Elections
[Consolidated.] J. Boggs finds that the Georgia Lactation Consultant Practice Act is unconstitutional on due process grounds and rules that the trial court improperly found in favor of Georgia's Secretary of State on a due process claim brought by the lactation counselor and nonprofit. The law, which requires lactation care providers to obtain a privately issued certification as an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant for licensure, unfairly blocks providers from practicing their lawful, chosen profession. Reversed.
Court: Georgia Supreme Court, Judge: Boggs, Filed On: May 31, 2023, Case #: S23A0017, Categories: Constitution, Due Process
J. Boggs finds that while all of the Michigan state officials may not have been entitled to sovereign immunity, the lower court properly dismissed the class action suit filed by the registered sex offenders because the class failed to establish supervisory liability for the enforcement of unconstitutional reporting requirements under now-rescinded portions of the state's Sex Offender Registry Act. The governors and directors of the Michigan State Police may not have informed their subordinates they could no longer enforce certain portions of the Act, but this failure is too tenuous a connection between the parties to establish supervisory liability. Affirmed.
Court: 6th Circuit, Judge: Boggs, Filed On: May 30, 2023, Case #: 22-1925, Categories: Civil Rights, Constitution, Class Action