274 Ga. App. 873 - Burchette v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

3 state decisions

Most-quoted passages

The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 3 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Georgia’s first offender law, OCGA § 42-8-60 (a), states as follows: “Upon a verdict or plea of guilty or a plea of nolo contendere, but before an adjudication of guilt, in the case of a defendant who has not been previously convicted of a felony, the court may, without entering a judgment of guilt and with the consent of the defendant: (1) Defer further proceeding and place the defendant on probation as provided by law; or (2) Sentence the defendant to a term of confinement as provided by law. ...” Under the plain language of this statute, a trial court is only authorized to grant first offender treatment before a defendant has been adjudicated guilty and sentenced. It follows that, once a trial court imposes a sentence, the defendant loses the opportunity to be treated as a first offender. 2”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. 296 Ga. App. 510 - State v. Stulb · 306 Ga. App. 40 - State v. Neal