Clarke County Daily Report (ok...not really daily)

Local judges in the appellate courts:

In Craig v. State, A05A2300 (10/21/05), Judge Lawrence of the State Court was affirmed in Mr. Craig's conviction for leaving the scene of an accident. The Court of Appeals found that the positive identification by the victim was sufficient evidence of identity, that Judge Lawrence didn't err when he read an entire statute instead of only the applicable section in jury instructions (or even if he did err, that it didn't harm defendant because no evidence was introduced on the extra sections), and that the State proved he was driving on a "public highway" because everybody in Athens knows the "loop" is a public highway.

In Moore v. State, A05A1201 (10/21/05), Judge Stephens was affirmed in denying Mr. Moore's motion to correct, modify and/or strike his sentence of life w/o parole on his '91 armed robbery conviction and his motion challenging his '74 sentence on a guilty plea to armed robbery. Because he was a juvy when he committed the '74 robbery, Mr. Moore claimed juvenile court should have jurisdiction over that conviction, and therefore that it shouldn't have been used as a prior to sentence him as a recidivist for the '91 robbery. The Court of Appeals didn't see it that way, since juvy court transferred the case to superior court back in '74 (since Mr. Moore also committed a murder with that one), and since the statute back then gave juvy and superior court concurrent jurisdiction over the crimes for which he was charged.

Meanwhile, in the big trial here, Plaintiff will start evidence today with a couple of fuel system experts.