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140 Ga. App. 340

231 S.E.2d 105

Brazell v. State

Court of Appeals of Georgia

Decided October 22, 1976

Court of Appeals of Georgia · decided 1976-10-22

Relies on Sims v. State of Georgia · 128 Ga. App. 157 - Hilliard v. State

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1976-10-22

How this case has been cited

Cited by 14 later decisions — most recently July 2001

7 state decisions

701976198019902000decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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Deen, Presiding Judge.

¶1 This appeal from a conviction for cattle theft is on the sole ground that the court allowed a purported confession to be considered by the jury without first making an affirmative ruling on its voluntariness, and without setting forth specific findings of fact and conclusions of law. "The trial judge need not make formal findings of fact or write an opinion, but it must clearly appear from the record that he made a primary finding of voluntariness before the confession was introduced. Hilliard v. State, 128 Ga. App. 157, 158 (195 SE2d 772); Sims v. Georgia, 385 U. S. 538 (87 SC 639, 17 LE2d 593). The court heard evidence in the absence of the jury on the circumstances and contents of the defendant’s incriminatory statement, and ruled: "The court finds that it was freely and voluntarily made, and the court’s going to admit it as a statement.” No error appears.

¶2 Judgment affirmed.

Webb and Smith, JJ., concur. *341 John W. Underwood, District Attorney, Dupont K. Cheney, Assistant District Attorney, for appellee.
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