State v. Abernathy
| Decision Date | 05 July 2011 |
| Docket Number | S11A0314.,S11X0315. |
| Parties | STATE v. ABERNATHY. ABERNATHY v. STATE. |
| Court | Georgia Supreme Court |
Samuel Mitchell Abernathy was convicted by a White County jury of the January 2008 murder of Darrin Ramey and sentenced to life imprisonment. On motion for new trial, the trial court, while rejecting most of Abernathy's contentions, granted the motion on the sole ground that Abernathy's public defender had rendered ineffective assistance due to a conflict of interest inhering in his representation of Abernathy. The State obtained a certificate of immediate review and filed an application for interlocutory appeal challenging the award of a new trial, which this Court granted. Abernathy then filed a cross-appeal, contesting the trial court's rejection of his other alleged grounds for reversal. For the reasons set forth below, we find that the trial court erred in granting Abernathy a new trial and therefore reverse and remand for further proceedingsin the trial court.1
1. The trial court granted Abernathy's motion for new trial based on the finding that Abernathy's public defender, Charles Brown, was employed in the same circuit public defender's office as initial counsel for Abernathy's co-arrestee in the case, John Geren. Geren, Abernathy's then-romantic partner, was a witness to the altercation from which Abernathy's conviction arose and fled the scene with Abernathy in the aftermath thereof; the two men were apprehended while fleeing and placed under arrest later on the day of the crime.
As found by the trial court, the undisputed evidence reflects that within hours of the men's arrest on January 10, 2008, Neil Smith of the Enotah Circuit Public Defender's Office visited Geren at the jailhouse, confirming Geren's desire for legal representation, and Geren told Smith his version of events surrounding the crime. Smith then filed an entry of appearance on Geren's behalf in the case as well as standard preliminary motions. Shortly thereafter, however, Geren retained private counsel, who filed an entry of appearance in thetrial court on January 16, 2008, whereupon Smith withdrew from the case and Geren's case file in the public defender's office was closed. In March 2008, Geren was released without charge, and he ultimately testified at trial as a key witness for the State, providing an eyewitness account of the crime and incriminating details regarding Abernathy's conduct beforehand and thereafter.
Abernathy, who had initially indicated he would retain private counsel, ultimately came to be represented by Brown, who entered an appearance on Abernathy's behalf in April 2008. Brown had been sworn in as the Enotah Circuit Public Defender in January 2008, on the very day Smith withdrew his representation of Geren. Smith left the employ of the Enotah public defender's office within weeks of Brown's entry of appearance on Abernathy's behalf. Brown and Smith thus never communicated regarding the case, and it is undisputed that Brown had no knowledge that his office had briefly represented Geren in the case until well after his representation of Abernathy had ended.
Based on these facts, the trial court, analogizing lawyers within a single circuit public defender office to lawyers within a single law firm, found that Brown was laboring under an actual conflict of interest in his representation of Abernathy, that prejudice therefrom must be presumed, and that Abernathy hadthus received ineffective assistance of counsel. While we agree with the trial court that Abernathy and Geren's interests in the case were adverse to one another's and would thus - assuming, arguendo, that the rules for imputing conflicts operate within a single circuit public defender office in the same manner as those within a law firm2 - give rise to a conflict, we disagree with the conclusion that Abernathy need not show any actual harm to prove a Sixth Amendment violation in these circumstances. See generally Dockery v. State, 287 Ga. 275 (5) (695 SE2d 599) (2010) ().
(Emphasis in original.) Id. at 351 (2). A significant effect on the representation may be found, for example, where counsel is shown to have refrained from raising a potentially meritorious issue due to the conflict, see id. at 350 (2); where counsel negotiates a plea bargain for more than one defendant in a case conditioned on acceptance of the plea by all such defendants, see Tarwater v. State, 259 Ga. 516 (383 SE2d 883) (1989); or where one of the State's witnesses was a current client of defense counsel in an unrelated criminal matter, thereby constraining counsel's ability to cross-examine the witness. See Mitchell v. State, 261 Ga. 347 (2) (405 SE2d 38) (1991).
In this case, the trial court expressly noted the absence of any evidence that the conflict "colored counsel's actions during the trial." Indeed, given that Brown was completely unaware of Smith's brief past representation of Geren, he neither was privy to any confidential communications between Smith and Geren nor had any reason to temper any aspect of his trial strategy out ofconcern for Geren. Simply put, "[Abernathy] has not shown in this case how his attorney's conflict caused divided loyalties [or] compromised his attorney's representation of him." Jackson v. State, 271 Ga. 705, 706 (1) (523 SE2d 871) (1999). Therefore, the trial court erred in granting a new trial on these grounds.
2. In his cross-appeal, Abernathy claims error in the trial court's rejection of several other grounds on which he seeks a new trial. Viewed in the light most favorable to the verdict, the evidence adduced at trial established as follows.3 Shortly before midnight on the evening of January 9, 2008, Abernathy, who had been drinking for several hours, and Geren went to the Southside Bar to play pool. Abernathy had previously been banned from the premises of the bar, and thus shortly after the men's arrival the bartender asked them to leave. During the exchange with the bartender, in which Abernathy implored her to allow themto stay, Ramey and his friend Luther Mize approached and reiterated the bartender's request that they leave. Abernathy responded by suggesting they "take this out in the parking lot"; Geren then urged Abernathy to leave with him and turned to go. Ramey followed the two men to the door; Mize, who had become agitated, was being restrained by friends but called out to Ramey not to go outside. As Ramey followed Abernathy into the parking lot, Abernathy turned around, withdrew a knife from his pocket, and stabbed Ramey in the chest. Abernathy and Geren ran to their truck and sped off but were apprehended a short time later. Ramey later died from his wound, which was inflicted with such force that, according to the medical examiner, the victim's sternum was bisected.
Both Geren and one other eyewitness, Edsel Thomas, testified to seeing Abernathy lunge at Ramey. Thomas further testified that he did not see Ramey make any aggressive moves toward Abernathy. Geren also testified that, earlier on the evening of the crime, Abernathy had claimed to have his "Smith & Wesson" in his pocket. In addition, Geren testified that, while in the truck fleeing the bar, Abernathy instructed Geren to hit him in the face, which Geren did, in an effort to make it appear that Ramey had been the aggressor. Whenthey realized police were following them, Abernathy threw the knife out the window of the truck.
After being apprehended, Abernathy made unsolicited remarks about the crime in the police patrol car, admitting that he had stabbed the victim but claiming he had done so only in response to the victim's aggression. While in a jail holding cell prior to his arrest, Abernathy made additional spontaneous statements, which were recorded and played for the jury, also to the effect that he had stabbed Ramey in self-defense.
The evidence was sufficient for a rational trier of fact to find Abernathy guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of the malice murder and aggravated assault of the victim. Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U. S. 307 (99 SC 2781, 61 LE2d 560) (1979).
3. Abernathy contends that the trial court erred in its disposition as to a second alleged conflict of interest issue on the part of Brown. The record reflects that, immediately prior to his appointment as Enotah Circuit Public Defender, Brown served as Helen's city attorney4 and simultaneously as itsmunicipal court solicitor. The record further reflects that, during Brown's tenure as solicitor, Abernathy was issued numerous citations for traffic and other misdemeanor offenses; in one such case in 2006, Abernathy agreed to twelve months' banishment from the City of Helen in exchange for dead-docketing the charge. However, Brown had no involvement on the City's behalf in any matters related to the Ramey homicide.
As discussed in Division 1, in order to establish ineffective assistance arising from a conflict of interest, a defendant must show the existence of an actual conflict that adversely affected counsel's performance. We have...
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