Home/Supreme Court of Georgia/Pierce v. State

Pierce v. State

254 S.E.2d 838, 243 Ga. 454, 1979 Ga. LEXIS 934
CourtSupreme Court of Georgia
DecidedApril 5, 1979
Docket34521
StatusPublished
Cited by26 cases

This text of 254 S.E.2d 838 (Pierce 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
Pierce v. State, 254 S.E.2d 838, 243 Ga. 454, 1979 Ga. LEXIS 934 (Ga. 1979).

Opinions

Nichols, Chief Justice.

The defendant was convicted of the murder of her husband. She received a life sentence. She appeals. This court affirms.

1. In passing upon the general grounds, this court reviews not the weight but the sufficiency of the evidence to support the verdict. The evidence is viewed in the light [455]*455most favorable to the verdict. So long as there is "any evidence” to support the jury’s verdict, it will not be disturbed on appeal. Eubanks v. State, 240 Ga. 544, 546 (242 SE2d 41) (1978). The burden of showing by a preponderance of the evidence that she was not mentally responsible at the time of the alleged crime was upon the defendant. This presumption of sanity does not dissipate with the presentation of evidence to the contrary; rather, the jury was free to reject the testimony of both the lay and the expert witnesses as to the sanity of the accused, and to rely instead upon the presumption of sanity with which the accused entered the trial. Potts v. State, 241 Ga. 67, 80-83(243 SE2d 510) (1978). There being evidence to support the jury’s verdict, the first three enumerations of error are without merit.

2. The fourth enumeration of error complains that a psychiatrist was allowed to testify over an objection based upon the patient-psychiatrist privilege that during evaluation of the defendant at Central State Hospital, the defendant had told him the following: Her husband had come home around noon. He was angry with her because she had not gone with him that morning to cut a lawn. He called her bad names and threatened to choke her or beat her up. He had beaten her up the night before. She got her pistol and started shooting at him. She closed her eyes and kept on shooting until she ran out of bullets. She then went for help.

The trial court ruled that the patient-psychiatrist relationship to which Code Ann. § 38-418 (5) applies did not exist since the defendant was ordered by the court to be transferred to Central State Hospital for evaluation and examination. The applicability of the patient-psychiatrist privilege to the facts of this case being the only issue presented for decision, there is no merit in this enumeration of error. Massey v. State, 226 Ga. 703 (4) (177 SE2d 79) (1970); Plummer v. State, 229 Ga. 749 (194 SE2d 419) (1972); Thadd v. State, 231 Ga. 623 (4) (203 SE2d 230) (1974); Thomas v. State, 240 Ga. 393, 398 (242 SE2d 1) (1977). Cf., Kimble v. Kimble, 240 Ga. 100 (239 SE2d 676) (1977).

3. The final enumeration of error is deemed to be abandoned. Rule 18(c) (2). Bradberry v. State, 238 Ga. 83 [456]*456(5) (230 SE2d 885) (1976); Ramey v. State, 238 Ga. 111, 114 (7) (230 SE2d 891) (1976).

Submitted February 2, 1979 Decided April 5, 1979. Gaines A. Tyler, Lynda B. Rea, for appellant. Frank C. Mills, District Attorney, Arthur K. Bolton, Attorney General, W. Davis Hewitt, Staff Assistant Attorney General, for appellee.

Judgment affirmed.

All the Justices concur, except Hall, J., who concurs in the judgment only.

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

Related

Ferguson v. State
704 S.E.2d 470 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 2010)
Lebis v. State
442 S.E.2d 786 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1994)
Willis v. State
410 S.E.2d 377 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1991)
Zackery v. State
391 S.E.2d 15 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1990)
O'DONNELL v. State
374 S.E.2d 729 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 1989)
Harris v. State
349 S.E.2d 374 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 1986)
Johnson v. State
346 S.E.2d 903 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1986)
Etchison v. State
334 S.E.2d 324 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1985)
Baldwin v. State
325 S.E.2d 128 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 1985)
Garnett William Cape v. Robert Francis, Warden
741 F.2d 1287 (Eleventh Circuit, 1984)
J. B. v. State
319 S.E.2d 465 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1984)
JB v. State
319 S.E.2d 465 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1984)
Coquillian v. State
307 S.E.2d 719 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1983)
Hopkins v. State
307 S.E.2d 707 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1983)
State v. Leidholm
334 N.W.2d 811 (North Dakota Supreme Court, 1983)
Rachel v. State
274 S.E.2d 475 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 1981)
Walker v. State
277 S.E.2d 740 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1981)
Montgomery v. State
270 S.E.2d 825 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1980)
Wilkie v. State
266 S.E.2d 289 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1980)
Leggett v. State
259 S.E.2d 476 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 1979)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
254 S.E.2d 838, 243 Ga. 454, 1979 Ga. LEXIS 934, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/pierce-v-state-ga-1979.