Powell v. State
| Decision Date | 19 September 1995 |
| Docket Number | No. A95A1511,A95A1511 |
| Citation | 218 Ga.App. 556,462 S.E.2d 447 |
| Parties | POWELL v. The STATE. |
| Court | Georgia Court of Appeals |
Randall W. Burton, Theresa M. Clyne, Athens, for appellant.
Kenneth W. Mauldin, Solicitor, Verda M. Andrews, Assistant Solicitor, Athens, for appellee.
A jury convicted Powell of inciting to riot (OCGA § 16-11-31(a)). He challenges the sufficiency of the evidence.
After 14-year-old Anderson rejected Powell's request to have sex with him, Powell threatened to have his 18-year-old girl friend, Johnson, beat her. Powell then informed Johnson that Anderson had been talking about her and suggested that Johnson go up the street to meet Anderson. As Anderson and her friends Lattimore and Faust walked down the street, Johnson cursed them and ordered her three-year-old son to hit Anderson. When the child, whose father was Powell, began hitting Anderson with a switch, Lattimore told Anderson to hit him back.
Johnson then jumped on Lattimore's back and began pulling Lattimore's hair, punching and kneeing her at Powell's direction. Faust ran for help and returned with Lattimore's sister, who attempted to break up the fight until Powell drew his arm back as though he was about to strike her and said to let them keep fighting. At some point, Johnson and Lattimore stopped and then recommenced fighting. Powell shoved everyone away who tried to stop the fight, including Lattimore's 11-year-old niece. By the time Lattimore's mother and uncle arrived and ended it, between 25 and 60 onlookers had gathered.
Powell unsuccessfully moved for directed verdict at the close of the State's case; he argued that there was insufficient evidence that he urged, counseled, or advised others to riot or of a clear and present danger of a riot. He presses this point.
Pardo v. State, 215 Ga.App. 317(1), 450 S.E.2d 440 (1994). The jury's verdict must be upheld if "any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt." Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 319, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 2789, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979).
The essential elements of inciting to riot are: (1) engaging in conduct which urges, counsels, or advises others to riot; (2) with intent to riot; and (3) at a time and place and under circumstances which produce a clear and present danger of a riot. OCGA § 16-11-31(a). Under Georgia law, "[a]ny two or more persons who shall do an unlawful act of violence or any other act in a violent and tumultuous manner commit the offense of riot." OCGA § 16-11-30(a).
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