Collins v. State
Decision Date | 16 March 1978 |
Docket Number | No. 2,No. 55371,55371,2 |
Parties | Ronnie COLLINS v. The STATE |
Court | Georgia Court of Appeals |
R. David Botts, Atlanta, for appellant.
M. Randall Peek, Dist. Atty., Robert E. Wilson, Asst. Dist. Atty., Decatur, for appellee.
This appeal is from Collins' conviction of one count of armed robbery of Susan Hudson, who was resident manager of the Wellington Court Apartments, in south DeKalb County. (See Collins v. State, 145 Ga.App. 341(1), 243 S.E.2d 716).
1. Collins insists that a mistrial should have been granted because during cross-examination of a defense witness the district attorney commented: We do not agree.
After defense counsel objected, the district attorney apologized and the court properly instructed the jury to disregard the remark. London v. State, 142 Ga.App. 426, 427(1), 236 S.E.2d 158, 159 (1977).
2. The trial court charged: This charge was repeated almost verbatim from one recommended by the Committee on Pattern Jury Instructions of the Council of Superior Court Judges, and we find no error.
3. The contention that in instructing the jury that "the burden rests upon the State to prove all of the material allegations in these two indictments," the trial court failed to completely charge on the law of reasonable doubt is not supported by a reading of the entire charge as a whole. Perkins v. State, 141 Ga.App. 893(1), 234 S.E.2d 715 (1977); Rucker v. State, 135 Ga.App. 468, 471(3), 218 S.E.2d 146 (1975), and citations in both cases.
4. Collins enumerates as error the charge of the court: He asserts that it was not necessary for the jury to believe the defendant's alibi in order to acquit him and that the charge could have erroneously led the jury to conclude that it was limited to an acquittal only if it believed his contentions. He relies upon Graham v. State, 135 Ga.App. 825, 219 S.E.2d 477 (1975) and Henderson v. State, 134 Ga.App. 898, 900(5), 216 S.E.2d 696 (1975), wherein similar charges were held to be erroneous.
However, Avery v. State, 141 Ga.App. 92, 93(4), 232 S.E.2d 618, 619 (1977).
Although the language objected to here, as in Avery, was midway in an otherwise adequate charge, we agree with the holding in Flannigan v. State, 139 Ga.App. 590, 591, 229 S.E.2d 98 (1976), no matter where such an instruction may...
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