Cuzzort v. State, S99A1120.
Decision Date | 13 September 1999 |
Docket Number | No. S99A1120.,S99A1120. |
Citation | 271 Ga. 464,519 S.E.2d 687 |
Parties | CUZZORT v. The STATE. |
Court | Georgia Supreme Court |
OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE
Christopher A. Townley, Rossville, for appellant.
Herbert E. Franklin, Jr., District Attorney, for appellee.
Appellant Terry Lee Cuzzort was indicted in the Lookout Mountain Judicial Circuit on charges of aggravated stalking. According to the method of case assignment established in that circuit, Cuzzort's case was assigned to a judge and placed on the court calendar by the district attorney. Cuzzort filed a series of pretrial motions challenging the system of assigning judges and calendaring cases presently employed in the Lookout Mountain Judicial Circuit, all of which were denied in a consolidated order. The trial court issued a certificate of immediate review and this Court granted Cuzzort's application for interlocutory appeal to determine whether the case assignment method employed in the Lookout Mountain Judicial Circuit violates Uniform Superior Court Rule 3.1. Finding that it does, we reverse.
The State contends the case assignment system used in the Lookout Mountain Judicial Circuit is the most efficient for a rural circuit with multiple counties and judges, and the random case assignment method proposed in USCR 3.1 is impracticable. Under the plain language of the rule, multi-judge circuits may adopt a different method subject to the approval of a majority of the circuit's judges. Lumpkin v. Johnson, 270 Ga. 392(1), 509 S.E.2d 621 (1998); Cobb County v. Campbell, 256 Ga. 519, 350 S.E.2d 466 (1986) (applying Rule 3.1 of the Uniform State Court Rules). Certainly, Lumpkin, supra at 394, 509 S.E.2d 621. Accordingly, we do not take issue with the Lookout Mountain Judicial Circuit's decision to adopt a more efficient system. The precise method of assigning and calendaring cases adopted by a multi-judge circuit, however, must comport with the notion of due process under the State and Federal constitutions, as well as the spirit and purpose of the uniform rules and applicable statutes. See id.
2. The purpose of the assignment system in multi-judge circuits is to "prevent any person's choosing the judge to whom an action is to be assigned." USCR 3.1. In this regard, we have approved of a system in which the chief judge makes assignments in accordance with a method specifically approved by a majority of the other judges because the chief judge is not such a "person" as described in the Rule. Lumpkin, supra at 394, 509 S.E.2d 621. In the Lookout Mountain Judicial Circuit, however, it is not the chief or other circuit judge who makes case assignments and sets the calendar but the district attorney. Because the district attorney is clearly within the category of persons directed to refrain from affecting case...
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