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245 Ga. 881

Mulligan v. State

Supreme Court of Georgia

Decided June 24, 1980

Supreme Court of Georgia · decided 1980-06-24

Cited by 6 later decisions — most recently March 1984

3 state decisions

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

“in the sense of serious physical abuse to the victim because eyewitness testimony, supplemented by the autopsy report, indicated that the victim had been repeatedly raped and repeatedly sodomized prior to death. The court also found that this treatment of the victim demonstrated depravity of mind. The court held that 162 the present jury was authorized to find, consistently with the United States Supreme Court's holding in Godfrey that, beyond a reasonable doubt, the murder of the victim was of a type universally condemned by civilized society as”

quoted by 1 later decision, including Collins v. Francis

“outrageously or wantonly vile, horrible or inhuman in that it involved torture or depravity of mind....”

quoted by 1 later decision, including Collins v. Francis

Relies on Hance v. State

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1980-06-24

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

¶1We re-examine, in light of Godfrey v. State, 48 USLW 4541 (May 19, 1980), our holding in the present case that the evidence supports a reasonable trier of fact’s *882finding, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the appellant’s murder of Ms. Miller was "outrageously or wantonly vile, horrible or inhuman in that it involved torture and depravity of mind.”

¶2The appellant’s murder of Ms. Miller was a cold-blooded, execution-style killing, perpetrated for no other reason than to eliminate a witness to the murder of Captain Doe.

¶3As noted in part one of the opinion, "the autopsy of Ms. Miller revealed that she had been shot four times: in the left forearm, the left shoulder, the right upper arm, and the mid-portion of the back of the skull, with the exit wound of the last listed shot being the right eye. The cause of death ... was laceration and hemorrhage of the brain and cerebral trauma.”

¶4We note the following testimony of the appellant’s accomplice, Timothy Helms, "I heard her [Ms. Miller] say, she said, 'Help me, I’m hurt, please help me,’ and he [the appellant] put the gun in her back and shot her again and said, 'Shut up,’ woman.”

¶5This testimony clearly demonstrates that the fatal shot to the skull was not the first shot fired and that Ms. Miller suffered serious physical abuse prior to death.

¶6Accordingly, we hold that the present jury was authorized to find, consistently with the United States Supreme Court’s holding in Godfrey, and, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the appellant’s murder of Ms. Miller was "outrageously or wantonly vile, horrible or inhuman in that it involved torture and depravity of mind.” See Hance v. State, 245 Ga. 856, decided June 24, 1980, after the main opinion in this case.

¶7Judgment affirming the death sentence is adhered to.

All the Justices concur.
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