Allen v. State
| Citation | 219 Ga. 777,135 S.E.2d 885 |
| Decision Date | 18 March 1964 |
| Docket Number | No. 22409,22409 |
| Parties | Ralph W. ALLEN v. The STATE. |
| Court | Supreme Court of Georgia |
C. B. King, Thomas M. Jackson, Albany, for plaintiff in error.
No appearance for defendant in error.
Syllabus Opinion by the Court
Ralph W. Allen, a white man, was indicted in Dougherty County for the penal offense of assault with intent to murder which is not a capital offense. Before arraignment, he moved to quash the indictment on the ground that the grand jurors who indicted him were selected from lists prepared by jury commissioners who had systematically, arbitrarily and deliberately excluded all Negroes therefrom and for that reason the indictment is violative of his rights under the equal protection and due process clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. He also moved that he not be tried by the jurors then serving who had been selected from traverse jury lists which had been likewise prepared by the jury commissioners. His motions were overruled and the exception is to that judgment. Held:
Movant does not contend that Art. VI, Sec. XVI, Par. II of Georgia's Constitution of 1945 (Code Ann. § 2-5102) which gives the General Assembly authority to provide by statute for the selection of grand and traverse jurors or any statute passed pursuant thereto offends in any way the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. The jurisdiction of this court is fixed by Art. VI, Sec. II, Par. IV of the Constitution of 1945 (Code Ann. § 2-3704) and by that constitutional provision this court has jurisdiction of all cases in which the constitutionality of any law of the State of Georgia or of the United States is drawn in question. Here movant does not question the validity of any law of this State which provides for the selection of grand and traverse jurors nor raise any other question over which this court has jurisdiction. His motions involve only the application of unquestioned and unambiguous provisions of the Federal Constitution to a given state of facts. Hence, the Court of Appeals and not this court has jurisdiction of the writ of error and it is accordingly transferred to that court. See McGill v. State of Georgia, 209 Ga. 282, 71 S.E.2d 548; Atlanta Newspapers, Inc. v. Grimes, 215 Ga. 324, 110 S.E.2d 343; and Edwards v. State, 217 Ga. 804, 125 S.E.2d 506 and the cases there cited. We have not overlooked or failed to consider the decision in Crumb...
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Allen v. State
...assigned error on this judgment in the Georgia Supreme Court, and the Supreme Court transferred the case to this Court. Allen v. State, 219 Ga. 777 (135 S.E.2d 885). C. B. King, Thomas M. Jackson, Albany, for plaintiff in error. Stephen Pace, Jr., Sol., Americus, for defendant in error. HAL......
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Granite State v. City of Roswell
...Outdoor Displays, Inc., 266 Ga. 393, 467 S.E.2d 875, it does not constitute binding precedent on that issue. See Allen v. State, 219 Ga. 777, 778, 135 S.E.2d 885 (1964). 7. In its ruling, the trial court determined that the statute was content-neutral and severed the portions which Granite ......
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Heard v. State
...S.E.2d 195. Because we did not rule on this Court's jurisdiction in Johnson, no binding precedent was established. Allen v. State, 219 Ga. 777, 778, 135 S.E.2d 885 (1964). See also Douglas v. Wages, 271 Ga. 616, 617, n. 2, 523 S.E.2d 330 (1999); Lewis v. Robinson, 254 Ga. 378, 329 S.E.2d 49......
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Douglas v. Wages
...type of case in this Court since this Court did not rule on the issue of its appellate jurisdiction in Besser. Allen v. State, 219 Ga. 777, 135 S.E.2d 885 (1964). Despite our lack of initial appellate jurisdiction, we have addressed the merits of appellants' appeal in the interest of judici......