Public-domain · open source
OpenJurist

258 Ga. 96

Jones v. State

Supreme Court of Georgia

Decided March 16, 1988

Supreme Court of Georgia · decided 1988-03-16

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

“the substance of the communication is established without contradiction, the facts themselves may establish the lack of prejudice or harm to the defendant. [Cit.]”

quoted by 2 later decisions, including Pennie v. State, Ledford v. State

Relies on Whitlock v. State · 179 Ga. App. 252 - Dudley v. State · 185 Ga. App. 649 - Jones v. State

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1988-03-16

How this case has been cited

Cited by 12 later decisions — most recently May 2023

12 state decisions

6019881990200020102020decided

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.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

Marshall, Chief Justice.

¶1We granted the application for writ of certiorari in the present case. Jones v. State, 185 Ga. App. 649 (366 SE2d 144) (1988). We disapprove the Court of Appeals’ holding in Div. 3 of its opinion that where an unauthorized communication to a juror occurs in a criminal case, the burden is on the defense to show actual prejudice. The rule in this State is that where such an improper communication occurs, *97there is a presumption of harm and the burden is on the State to show the lack thereof. E.g., Whitlock v. State, 230 Ga. 700 (1) (198 SE2d 865) (1973); Dudley v. State, 179 Ga. App. 252 (3) (345 SE2d 888) (1986). However, where the substance of the communication is established without contradiction, the facts themselves may establish the lack of prejudice or harm to the defendant. See Whitlock v. State, supra. In our opinion, such is the situation here. Consequently, we summarily affirm, since, under the facts in this case as set out in Div. 3 of the Court of Appeals’ opinion, the previously cited disapproved holding is not. outcome determinative. As to the summary affirmance, see Georgia Supreme Court Rule No. 49 (2).

Decided March 16, 1988.Timothy P. Healy, for appellant.Michael H. Crawford, District Attorney, for appellee.

¶2Judgment affirmed.

All the Justices concur.
/258/ga/96 · .json · Public domain