Boswell v. State

Supreme Court of Georgia

Boswell v. State

256 S.E.2d 470, 243 Ga. 732, 1979 Ga. LEXIS 1052

CourtSupreme Court of Georgia

DecidedMay 31, 1979

Docket34853

StatusPublished

Cited by7 cases

This text of 256 S.E.2d 470 (Boswell v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook

Boswell v. State, 256 S.E.2d 470, 243 Ga. 732, 1979 Ga. LEXIS 1052 (Ga. 1979).

Pincite

Opinion

Hall, Justice.

This is an out-of-time appeal from a 1973 murder conviction and life sentence.

Boswell contends that the following charges given at his trial were burden-shifting under Mullaney v. Wilbur, 421 U. S. 684 (1975) and State v. Moore, 237 Ga. 269 (227 SE2d 241) (1975):

"The burden is on the defendant to establish by this [sic] preponderance of the' evidence, not beyond a reasonable doubt, but by a preponderance of the evidence, that at the time of the alleged offense, he was mentally irresponsible under tests that have been recognized by the law of Georgia.”

"While the burden of the proof is on the defendant to establish his defense of insanity by the preponderance of the evidence as I have defined, you should, if you have a reasonable doubt as to his sanity at the time of the alleged murder charged against him was [sic] committed, you are to give him the benefit of the doubt and acquit him on those grounds.”

These charges are proper under Patterson v. New York, 432 U. S. 197 (1977); Grace v. Hopper, 566 F2d 507 (5th Cir.) cert. den. 99 SC 139 (1978); Pierce v. State, 243 Ga. 454 (1979); Durham v. State, 239 Ga. 697, 698 (238 SE2d 334) (1977).

The final enumeration of error is deemed abandoned under Rule 18 (c) (2) of this court.

Judgment affirmed.

All the Justices concur.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI