Opinion

Bethay v. State

  • 235 Ga. 371
  • 219 S.E.2d 743
  • 1975 Ga. LEXIS 886
Court
Supreme Court of Georgia
Filed
Oct 21, 1975
Status
Published
Author
Hall
On the bench
Hill, Hall, Divisions
Cited by
157 cases
Authority
More cited than 6.1%

overruled on other grounds Humphrey v. State, 252 Ga. 525 (1) (314 SE2d 436) (1984)

How later courts described this case

  • overruled on other grounds Humphrey v. State, 252 Ga. 525 (1) (314 SE2d 436) (1984)
  • “We therefore hold that on appeal of the overruling of a motion for directed verdict of acquittal made at the close of the state’s case in chief, the reviewing court can consider all the evidence in the case in determining whether the trial court erred in overruling the motion.”
  • jeopardy would attach to count on which directed verdict is granted

Written by the judges who cited it.

The opinion

Hall, Justice,

concurring specially in Divisions 1 and 4.

I. I adhere to the views expressed in my dissenting opinion in Marchman v. State, 234 Ga. 40, 41-45 ( 215 SE2d 467 ) (1975) on the proper construction of Code Ann. § 26-507 dealing with former jeopardy. However, because I have failed to to convince a majority of this court, Marchman is now a precedent which must be followed until changed by this court or the General Assembly.

*378 2. The provisions of Code Ann. § 59-705 do not confer upon counsel for the parties any absolute right as to the manner of conducting voir dire by counsel for the parties. On the contrary, this "control... is within the sound legal discretion of the trial court, and only in the event of manifest abuse will it be upset upon review.” Whitlock v. State, 230 Ga. 700 (5) ( 198 SE2d 865 ) (1973). "In regulating and controlling the business of the court, wide discretion is necessarily placed in the judge, and the appellate courts should never interfere with the exercise of that discretion unless it is made to appear that wrong or oppression has resulted from its abuse.” Kellar v. State, 226 Ga. 432 (4) ( 175 SE2d 654 ) (1970).

In my opinion, there has been no showing of manifest abuse of the trial court’s inherent power to control the voir dire proceeding.

This is a copy of a public record, reproduced as it was published. It is not legal advice, and it may not be the version a court would rely on. Check the official source before you cite it.

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