Garland v. State
Decision Date | 09 January 1985 |
Docket Number | No. 41422,41422 |
Citation | 325 S.E.2d 131,253 Ga. 789 |
Parties | GARLAND v. The STATE. |
Court | Georgia Supreme Court |
Albert M. Pearson III, Athens, Bobby Lee Cook, Cook, Cook & Palmour, Summerville, Steven H. Sadow, Garland, Nuckolls & Catts, Atlanta, for Edward T.M. Garland.
William U. Norwood, III, Thomasville, for the State.
Martin & Young. John R. Martin, amicus curiae.
Appellant Garland, an attorney, was convicted of criminal contempt in the Superior Court of Baker County and fined $500. The conviction was affirmed by the Court of Appeals. Garland v. State, 171 Ga.App. 519, 320 S.E.2d 548 (1984). We granted cert to answer two questions: (1) Whether the preponderance of the evidence standard of proof may be constitutionally applied in cases of criminal contempt; and (2) whether the out-of-court statements made in this case constituted criminal contempt.
Garland was retained as counsel for Stephen Brown, a defendant in a cocaine trafficking case in Baker County. On August 5, 1983, Judge Wallace Cato ordered that Brown be transferred to a jail in another county. An associate of Garland obtained a letter from a physician who had examined the prisoner nearly three weeks earlier indicating that the transfer would be harmful to his health. Although addressed to the court, the letter was delivered to the sheriff's office. On August 10, 1983, the prisoner was freed from the jail by armed intruders. Following a hearing August 18 and 19, 1983, as to whether the sheriff should be held in contempt for failing to transfer the prisoner, Judge Cato found that the propriety of the conduct of appellant and his associate had been "reasonably called into question." Neither attorney was present at this hearing. Before a scheduled pretrial motion in the Brown case on September 2, 1983, Judge Cato asked that both attorneys be sworn and questioned them extensively as to their possible involvement in the escape. The judge then announced that "the propriety of the conduct of both creates some grave questions in this court's mind which we judge inappropriate to ... pursue at this time." Appellant was not given an opportunity to be heard. The judge then recused himself from the Brown case, ordering a continuance of the pretrial motion hearing.
A short time after the hearing was continued appellant was introduced to a reporter from the Albany Herald at the office of another attorney. He made the following remarks to this reporter about the hearing and the actions of Judge Cato: " Garland v. State, supra at 520-21, 320 S.E.2d 548.
After these remarks were published in the newspaper appellant was ordered to show cause why he should not be held in contempt. He was held in contempt following a hearing conducted by another judge. In affirming that order the Court of Appeals held his comments impugned the judgment and integrity of the trial court with regard to the investigation into appellant's conduct. The Court of Appeals indicated that comments impugning the trial court's integrity in regard to an act taken in its official capacity are beyond the bounds of constitutionally protected speech because they constitute "a contumacious interference with or an obstruction of the administration of justice." Id. at 523, 320 S.E.2d 548. The Court of Appeals also concluded that under Pedigo v. Celanese Corp., 205 Ga. 392, 54 S.E.2d 252 (1949), application of the preponderance-of-the-evidence standard rather than the beyond-a-reasonable-doubt standard was applicable to the evidence in a contempt case.
1. At the outset we note that the evidence in any criminal contempt case must show that the defendant is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. In re Winship, 397 U.S. 358, 90 S.Ct. 1068, 25 L.Ed.2d 368 (1970). See also In re Crane, 253 Ga. 667, 324 S.E.2d 443 (1985). "Criminal contempt is a crime in the ordinary sense; it is a violation of the law, a public wrong which is punishable by fine or imprisonment or both." Bloom v. Illinois, 391 U.S. 194, 201, 88 S.Ct. 1477, 1481, 20 L.Ed.2d 522 (1968); Pedigo v. Celanese Corp. of America, 205 Ga. 392, 54 S.E.2d 252 (1949), is in conflict with these principles. We hereby overrule that case and hold that in all criminal contempt cases the evidence of the contempt must be beyond a reasonable doubt.
2. We turn now to a question of whether Garland was guilty of contempt beyond a reasonable doubt. Statements made in the presence of the court or outside of the presence of the court are protected by the guarantee of freedom of speech of the First and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution and by the Georgia Constitution (Art. I, Sec. I, Para. V). Contemptuous statements are not so protected. The test applied to determine whether a statement is contemptuous is whether there is a clear and present danger to orderly administration of justice. Wood v. Georgia, 370 U.S. 375, 82 S.Ct. 1364, 8 L.Ed.2d 569 (1962). "[N]either 'inherent tendency' nor 'reasonable tendency' is enough to justify a restriction of free expression." Bridges v. California, 314 U.S. 252, 273, 62 S.Ct. 190, 198, 86 L.Ed.2d 192 (1941).
The identification of a statement as constituting clear and present danger to the orderly administration of justice can be made only after taking into account the setting in which the statement is made. The possible settings are numerous, but four broad ones come to mind immediately: statements made in court, statements made out of the court but while a judicial proceeding is pending, statements made out of the court during the pendency of a judicial proceeding but concerning a judge who is no longer involved in the proceeding, and statements made out of the court...
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