Stuart v. State

734 S.E.2d 814, 318 Ga. App. 839, 2012 Fulton County D. Rep. 3953, 2012 Ga. App. LEXIS 1008
CourtCourt of Appeals of Georgia
DecidedNovember 28, 2012
DocketA12A1017
StatusPublished
Cited by26 cases

This text of 734 S.E.2d 814 (Stuart v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Stuart v. State, 734 S.E.2d 814, 318 Ga. App. 839, 2012 Fulton County D. Rep. 3953, 2012 Ga. App. LEXIS 1008 (Ga. Ct. App. 2012).

Opinion

BARNES, Presiding Judge.

A jury convicted Zorie W. Stuart of rape, aggravated child molestation, and child molestation, and the trial court sentenced him to life in confinement. Stuart argues on appeal that the trial court erred in failing to instruct the jury that statutory rape is a lesser included offense of rape. For the reasons that follow, we affirm.

During the charge conference, the trial court reviewed each of Stuart’s requests to charge. In response to the court’s recitation of the [840]*840requested charge “Lesser Offense, of Statutory Rape,”1 the State objected because the elements of proof differ for the two crimes. After the State made its argument, the trial court asked Stuart, “What do you say?” Stuart responded, “I have nothing to say. I believe that’s a correct statement of the law, that in statutory rape you do have to prove age. And you don’t in rape.” The trial court agreed with the State’s analysis, holding that statutory rape “could not be a lesser included offense [of rape] [b]ecause there is one element in statutory [rape] that is not in forcible rape.” The trial court stated that the jurors will “either find that there was force, or they [will] find that there was not force. If they [find] there was not force, then they will find him not guilty of rape,” and that it would not give the defendant’s charge related to “the lesser offense of statutory rape.” After the court completed its charge to the jury and asked for objections, Stuart responded, “No objections, Judge.”

On appeal, Stuart argues that the trial court erred in failing to instruct the jury that statutory rape is a lesser included charge of rape. “[U]nder OCGA § 17-8-58 (b), appellate review for plain error is required whenever an appealing party properly asserts an error in jury instructions.” State v. Kelly, 290 Ga. 29, 32 (1) (718 SE2d 232) (2011) . Here, neither Stuart nor the State address the fact that, during the charge conference, Stuart affirmatively agreed with the State that the charge was unwarranted, and Stuart does not argue that the failure to charge on statutory rape was plain error, only that it was error.

Nonetheless, the appellate courts “will review properly enumerated and argued claims of jury instruction error regardless of whether the appealing party specifically casts the alleged infirmity as ‘plain error,’ ” although failing to articulate how the alleged error satisfies the high standards required to establish plain error increases the likelihood that an appellate court will reject the claim. State v. Kelly, 290 Ga. at 32 (1), n. 2; White v. State, 291 Ga. 7, 8 (2) (727 SE2d 109) (2012) (court reviews allegation of jury instruction error despite lack of objection, “provided the enumeration of error is properly enumerated and argued on appeal”).

In conducting a plain error review, we consider first whether the record establishes “an error or defect — some sort of deviation from a legal rule — that has not been intentionally relinquished or [841]*841abandoned, i.e., affirmatively waived, by the appellant.” (Punctuation omitted.) State v. Kelly, 290 Ga. at 33 (2) (a). If so, we then consider whether the error was clear or obvious, whether it likely affected the outcome of the trial, and whether we should exercise our discretion to remedy the error. Id.

Here, the trial court did not err in failing to give the jury charge because “[statutory rape is not a lesser included offense of forcible rape.” Mangrum v. State, 285 Ga. 676, 680 (5) (681 SE2d 130) (2009). A conviction of statutory rape requires proof that the victim was under the age of consent, while a conviction of rape requires proof of force, regardless of the victim’s age. Grayer v. State, 176 Ga.App. 248, 249 (335 SE2d 483) (1985). Thus, the record does not establish an error or defect, and we need not decide whether Stuart’s actions at trial constituted an intentional relinquishment of a right, which would waive review, or merely a forfeiture of the right, which would not. See Shank v. State, 290 Ga. 844, 845 (2) (725 SE2d 246) (2012); Cheddersingh v. State, 290 Ga. 680, 684 (2) (724 SE2d 366) (2012).

Stuart cites Hill v. State, 295 Ga.App. 360 (671 SE2d 853) (2008) for the proposition that statutory rape is a lesser included offense of forcible rape. Hill, however, was incorrectly decided and must be overruled. In Hill, this court affirmed a statutory rape conviction after the trial court charged the jury over objection that statutory rape was a lesser included offense of rape. Id. at 363-364 (2). We held that the factual allegation that the victim was 16, which was included in the indictment in a separate child molestation count, put Hill on sufficient notice that he could be convicted of statutory rape, and further held that the actual evidence presented at trial established the offense. Id. This ruling is at odds with the Supreme Court of Georgia’s holding in Mangrum, 285 Ga. at 680 (5), and is therefore overruled.

The ruling in Hill also conflicts with the Supreme Court of Georgia’s holding in Drinkard v. Walker, 281 Ga. 211 (636 SE2d 530) (2006), in which the court disapproved the “actual evidence” test for determining when one offense is included in another under OCGA § 16-1-6 (1), and adopted the “required evidence” test. Under the “required evidence” test, the question is not whether the evidence actually presented at trial establishes the elements of the lesser crime, but whether each offense requires proof of a fact which the other does not. Id. at 215-217.

As the Drinkard court noted, the crime of rape requires that the State prove that the defendant had carnal knowledge of the victim, forcibly and against her will. Id. at 213. Proof of force is not required, however, to prove the offense of statutory rape. Hightower v. State, 256 Ga.App. 793, 796-797 (2) (570 SE2d 22) (2002). And because the [842]*842crime of statutory rape requires the State to prove that a victim is under the age of 16 and not the defendant’s spouse in addition to sexual intercourse, statutory rape requires proof of additional facts, not the same or less than all the facts, required to prove rape. Drinkard, 281 Ga. at 213. Accordingly, the Supreme Court concluded that Drinkard’s attorney was not ineffective for failing to argue that the two offenses should merge. Id. at 217.

Although decided two years after Drinkard,2 the Hill case incorrectly applied the actual evidence test to determine that the trial court did not err in charging the jury that it could find Hill, who had been charged with rape, guilty of the lesser included offense of statutory rape even if the required evidence test was not met. Hill, 295 Ga. App. at 363 (1). The Hill court found that

[e]ven if a lesser offense is not included in a charged offense as a general matter because the two offenses have different elements, the lesser offense may be an included offense in a particular case if the facts alleged in the indictment and the evidence presented at trial to establish the charged offense are sufficient to establish the lesser offense as well.

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

Related

Rodney Miles v. State
Court of Appeals of Georgia, 2022
Deanta Smith v. State
Court of Appeals of Georgia, 2021
David Billy McAllister, Jr. v. State
Court of Appeals of Georgia, 2019
McAllister v. State
830 S.E.2d 443 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 2019)
MATHIS v. the STATE.
807 S.E.2d 4 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 2017)
Bennett v. the State
779 S.E.2d 420 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 2015)
Williams v. Rudolph
777 S.E.2d 472 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 2015)
Hill v. Williams
770 S.E.2d 800 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 2015)
Hill v. Williams, Warden
Supreme Court of Georgia, 2015
Christopher Cantrell v. State
Court of Appeals of Georgia, 2014
Cantrell v. State
765 S.E.2d 611 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 2014)
John Tony Petro v. State
Court of Appeals of Georgia, 2014
Petro v. State
758 S.E.2d 152 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 2014)
Calvin Copeland v. State
Court of Appeals of Georgia, 2014
Copeland v. State
754 S.E.2d 636 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 2014)
Franks v. State
758 S.E.2d 604 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 2013)
Richard Clayton Long v. State
Court of Appeals of Georgia, 2013
Bridgett Marvette Hines v. State
Court of Appeals of Georgia, 2013
Hines v. State
740 S.E.2d 786 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 2013)
Lorenzo Loya v. State
Court of Appeals of Georgia, 2013

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
734 S.E.2d 814, 318 Ga. App. 839, 2012 Fulton County D. Rep. 3953, 2012 Ga. App. LEXIS 1008, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/stuart-v-state-gactapp-2012.