Spruell v. State

• Decision Date: 20 April 1978
• Docket Number: No. 3,No. 55712,55712,3
• Citation: 145 Ga.App. 720,244 S.E.2d 636
• Parties: Billy L. SPRUELL v. STATE of Georgia
• Court: Georgia Court of Appeals

Page 636

244 S.E.2d 636

145 Ga.App. 720

Billy L. SPRUELL v. STATE of Georgia.

No. 55712.

Court of Appeals of Georgia,Division No. 3.

April 20, 1978.

William V. Hall, Jr., Decatur, for appellant.

M. Randall Peek, Dist. Atty., Robert E. Wilson, Asst. Dist. Atty., Moulton, Carriere, Cavan & Maloof, J. Wayne Moulton, Decatur, for appellee.

DEEN, Presiding Judge.

It has long been the law of this state that while a trial judge may, for a direct criminal contempt committed in the presence of the court, hold the offender in contempt without a hearing and impose punishment, acting on his own knowledge of the facts, to do so he must in his order set forth fully and clearly the facts found and conclusions of law upon which the order is based. Brown v. Hames, 131 Ga.App 148 et cit., 205 S.E.2d 716 (1974). The order sentencing the offending attorney in this case does neither. It is true that there are attached to the order three pages of colloquy between the court and counsel in another case, but the order does no more than refer to this addendum without stating either the facts found or the conclusions drawn therefrom. It is accordingly insufficient...