King v. State, 67466
Decision Date | 04 January 1984 |
Docket Number | No. 67466,67466 |
Citation | 169 Ga.App. 444,313 S.E.2d 144 |
Court | Georgia Court of Appeals |
Parties | KING v. The STATE. |
John R. Francisco, Macon, for appellant.
Willis B. Sparks III, Dist. Atty., G.F. Peterman III, Asst. Dist. Atty., for appellee.
Defendant was indicted and convicted on February 14, 1983, for possession of a firearm by a convicted felon in violation of OCGA § 16-11-131(Code Ann. § 26-2914), which has an authorized punishment of one to five years. The conviction alleged and proved as an element of the offense was motor vehicle theft with a sentence of confinement to a penal institution. On April 6 the trial court sentenced defendant to three years, to be served on probation. During the sentence proceedings no mention was made by the court or the state of sentencing defendant as a repeat offender. Thereafter, the state filed a motion to vacate the sentence as void, on the ground that OCGA § 17-10-7(a)(Code Ann. § 27-2511) requires that a repeat offender be sentenced to the maximum punishment for the offense, which is five years. On May 31, the court granted the state's motion and sentenced defendant to five years, to be served on probation. Defendant appeals the increase in the sentence. Held:
This appeal raises the first impression issue of whether the state can use the prior felony conviction required to convict a convicted felon for being in possession of a firearm, and then use the same prior conviction to enhance the sentence to the maximum punishment for the offense under the repeat offender statute.
OCGA § 17-10-7(a)(Code Ann. § 27-2511) was in effect when the General Assembly enacted OCGA § 16-11-131(Code Ann. § 26-2914), possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, in 1980. If the General Assembly intended that repeat offender punishment be applied to possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, then every conviction for that offense could result in a minimum punishment of five years, thus rendering the authorized punishment for the offense of one to five years meaningless.
A legislative Act should not be so construed as to render it meaningless. Scott v. Mayor, etc., of Mt. Airy, 186 Ga. 652, 653, 198 S.E. 693.
Plantation Pipe Line Co. v. City of Bremen, 227 Ga. 1, 9, 178 S.E.2d 868.
"When statutes are in conflict, the courts are bound to abide by the most recent legislative expression [cit.] ..." Simmons v. State, 148 Ga.App. 317, 318, 251 S.E.2d 167.
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...the denial of his petition for habeas corpus. As explained below, we conclude that, as the Court of Appeals held in King v. State, 169 Ga.App. 444, 313 S.E.2d 144 (1984), OCGA § 17–10–7(a), which requires courts to sentence defendants with a prior felony conviction to the maximum time autho......
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...of legislative intent is necessarily Vermont-specific, a number of decisions from other jurisdictions do provide useful guidance. In King v. State, for example, the question was “whether the state can use the prior felony conviction required to convict a convicted felon for being in possess......
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