Estes v. Perkins
| Decision Date | 24 April 1969 |
| Docket Number | No. 25144,25144 |
| Citation | 225 Ga. 268,167 S.E.2d 588 |
| Parties | Felicia ESTES v. Edward E. PERKINS, Warden. |
| Court | Georgia Supreme Court |
John L. Respess, Jr., James R. Venable, H. G. McBrayer, Jr., Atlanta, for appellant.
Arthur K. Bolton, Atty. Gen., Marion O. Gordon, Mathew Robins, Asst. Attys. Gen., Atlanta, for appellee.
Syllabus Opinion by the Court
The appeal here is from the judgment and order of the Superior Court of Baldwin County in a habeas corpus proceeding in which the court refused to discharge the applicant and remanded her to the custody of the defendant warden. The appellant was convicted in Clayton County of the murder of her husband. She appealed to this court and her conviction was affirmed. See Estes v. State, 224 Ga. 687, 164 S.E.2d 108. The substance of the plaintiff's complaint is that she was denied the effective assistance of counsel in the preparation and trial of her case in that her attorneys failed to question each juror concerning whether or not he had ever been assaulted by another, whether or not any of them were acquainted with any of the State's witnesses, or whether they were related by blood or marriage to any of the State's witnesses; that without her permission and consent the jury was allowed to disperse for the night; that during a recess of the trial one of the State's witnesses approached one of the jurors in the hall and made an improper comment concerning the trial to him; that during the deliberations of the jury one of the jurors 'pulled up his shirt and displayed his chest and stated to the other jurors 'she is guilty as my wife shot me"; that her lawyers were lax in failing to put certain witnesses on the stand to prove certain contentions of the petitioner with respect to an alleged confession, and to prove the good character of the defendant; that her attorneys failed to instruct petitioner as to what she should say in making her unsworn statement to the jury; that her attorneys were lax in failing to fully develop before the jury alleged grounds of bias on the part of the prosecuting attorney against her, which she claims would have entitled her to a mistrial had the facts been properly developed; that her attorneys were negligent in attempting to prove infidelity on the part of her deceased husband as a motive for the shooting which evidence resulted in their losing their right to the closing argument in her bahalf; that her attorneys were negligent in adducing evidence that tended to show that the petitioner was some sort of drug addict, which evidence tended to place her character in issue and was highly prejudicial against her; that one of her attorneys in his argument to the jury made statements prejudicial to her defense; and, finally, that because of threats made against her and her attorneys by her father-in-law, petitioner's attorneys were intimidated and thereby prevented from adequately defending her.
1. While differing in specifics, the contentions of the appellant as made by her petition for habeas corpus, are, with the possible exception hereinafter treated, substantially like the...
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Lewis v. State
...a finding that the representation below was so inadequate as to amount to a denial of effective assistance of counsel. Estes v. Perkins, 225 Ga. 268, 167 S.E.2d 588 (1969). Although the issue of ineffective assistance of counsel is being presented for the first time in this court, rather th......
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Goodwin v. Hopper
...(Pitts v. Glass, 231 Ga. 638, 203 S.E.2d 515 (1974)), or by how another lawyer might have handled the case. Estes v. Perkins, 225 Ga. 268(1), 167 S.E.2d 588 (1968). The other grounds urged in this enumeration of error relate to trial strategy. Banks v. Glass, 242 Ga. 518, 250 S.E.2d 431 Thi......
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Solomon v. State
...a finding that the representation below was so inadequate as to amount to a denial of effective assistance of counsel. Estes v. Perkins, 225 Ga. 268, 167 S.E.2d 588 (1969). It is apparent from the record that the defense counsel was familiar with the facts of appellant's case and that he fi......
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Jones v. State
...(1974) quoting from MacKenna v. Ellis, 280 F.2d 592, 599 (5th Cir. 1960). (Emphasis in Pitts ). What we said in Estes v. Perkins, 225 Ga. 268, 167 S.E.2d 588, 590 (1969) still applies: "While another lawyer or lawyers, had they represented the petitioner upon her trial, might have conducted......