Birge v. State
Decision Date | 06 December 1976 |
Docket Number | No. 31908,31908 |
Citation | 238 Ga. 88,230 S.E.2d 895 |
Parties | Jack BIRGE v. The STATE. |
Court | Georgia Supreme Court |
Bobby Lee Cook, Summerville, Al Horn, Atlanta, for appellant.
William F. Lee, Jr., Newnan, for appellee.
Birge petitions for certiorari from a Court of Appeals decision (unpublished) affirming the trial court's ruling denying him bail pending appeal of his felony conviction of hindering apprehension or punishment of a criminal.
Birge was convicted on October 20, 1976 in Carroll County Superior Court, and was sentenced to three years' imprisonment. He was charged with participating in the destruction of the police file on the marijuana possession case against his son. The trial court denied his motion for bond pending appeal by written order of November 2, 1976, stating that the denial was based on 'the best interest of society and the enforcement of the laws of this State.'
Birge appealed to the Court of Appeals alleging that he was an active medical doctor in Carrollton with long term residence there and no prior police record; that the destroyed file contained nothing that could be considered 'evidence'; and that the trial court's denial of his challenges to the jury selection system and admission of evidence gathered without a warrant by a 'bug' presented substantial questions on appeal.
The Court of Appeals affirmed the judgment denying bail on grounds that no showing had been made that the trial court's ruling thereon had been an abuse of discretion. See Corbett v. State, 233 Ga. 756, 213 S.E.2d 652 (1975); Allen v. State, 137 Ga.App. 302, 304, 223 S.E.2d 495 (1976).
Watts v. Grimes, 224 Ga. 227, 161 S.E.2d 286 (1974).
The problem facing the trial courts upon bail applications, and facing us on review, is that nowhere in our decisions have we set forth standards by which to determine whether bail pending appeal should be granted or denied. The standards applied by the federal courts are codified in 18 U.S.C.A. § 3148. Those standards embrace basically four factors: whether there is a risk that the applicant will flee, or pose a danger to others or the community; or whether it appears that the appeal is frivolous, or is taken for delay.
The ABA Standards recommend the following approach:
'2.5 Release pending appeal; stay of execution.
(a) When an appeal has been instituted by a convicted defendant after a sentence of imprisonment has been imposed, the question of the appellant's custody pending final decision on appeal should be reviewed and a fresh determination made by the trial court. The burden of seeking a stay of execution and release may properly be placed on the appellant. 1 The decision of the trial court should be subject to review by an appellate judge or cou...
To continue reading
Request your trial-
Wilcox v. Carter, Civ. A. No. 82-66-VAL.
...be released on bail pending appeal in accordance with the criteria found in the Supreme Court of Georgia's decision in Birge v. State, 238 Ga. 88, 230 S.E.2d 895 (1976), and to timely appeal the denial of bail pending appeal to the Supreme Court of Georgia; (b) that the trial judge arbitrar......
-
Rautenberg v. State, 71346
...say the trial court abused its discretion in refusing to permit defendants to remain free on bond pending appeal. See Birge v. State, 238 Ga. 88, 230 S.E.2d 895 (1976); McCormick v. State, 161 Ga.App. 573, 289 S.E.2d 23 (1982). The sixth enumeration of error is without 8. In their final enu......
-
Johnson v. State
...denied," and so looked to both federal statutory law and to the ABA Standards for Criminal Justice 21-2.5 (1974). Birge v. State , 238 Ga. 88, 89-90, 230 S.E.2d 895 (1976). The ABA Standards are more demanding than those set forth for pretrial bail in OCGA § 17-6-1 (e), as they mandate cert......
-
Spence v. State
...record reflects that the trial court was only satisfied that the first prong of the Birge four-prong test was met. Birge v. State, 238 Ga. 88, 90, 230 S.E.2d 895 (1976), cert. den., 436 U.S. 945, 98 S.Ct. 2847, 56 L.Ed.2d 786 (1978). However, inasmuch as the Birge test is written in the con......