Summary
The Supreme Court of Georgia affirmed Phillip Earl Patterson’s convictions for malice murder, armed robbery, and theft by taking. The court rejected challenges concerning disclosure of a custodial statement, exclusion of an audio recording, mistrial motions based on character evidence, and ineffective assistance of counsel claims arising from the prosecution’s closing argument. A dissent argued that counsel’s failure to object to comments on Patterson’s rights to remain silent and to counsel was prejudicial.
Topics
Practice areas
Questions Presented
- Whether the State complied with former OCGA § 17-7-210(e) by producing a report recounting Patterson's custodial inculpatory statement as soon as possible after discovery.
- Whether exclusion of an audio recording of Patterson's denial of involvement required reversal when substantially identical evidence was presented through testimony.
- Whether the trial court erred in denying mistrial motions after a co-indictee testified about Patterson's alleged prior bad acts and violent character.
- Whether trial counsel's failure to object to portions of the State's closing argument constituted ineffective assistance of counsel.
- Whether the evidence was sufficient to support Patterson's convictions under Jackson v. Virginia.
Holdings
- The evidence was sufficient to authorize a rational trier of fact to find Patterson guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of malice murder, armed robbery, and theft by taking.
- The trial court did not err in determining that the State produced the report recounting Patterson's custodial statement as soon as possible after its discovery and in denying the motion to suppress.
- Even assuming the trial court erred by refusing to allow the recording to be played, the error did not require reversal because the recording was cumulative of testimony that Patterson denied involvement in the shooting.
- The trial court did not err in denying Patterson's mistrial motions because the nonresponsive answer was addressed by a curative instruction, and the other challenged testimony was elicited or provided in explanation of the witness's answer.
- Patterson failed to establish ineffective assistance of counsel because, considering the assumed and actual errors cumulatively, he did not show a reasonable probability that the outcome of the trial would have been different.
Key quotations
“The closing argument by the prosecutor in this case specifically and deliberately posited that Patterson's failure to speak should "be judged as evidence of the admission of criminal responsibility."” (602)
Factual background
Patterson was convicted for the 1987 killing and robbery of Bruce Keeter, an assistant manager at a fast-food restaurant in Columbus, Georgia, and for theft of Keeter's automobile. The State presented testimony from Patterson's co-indictees, a detective, and a jail inmate that Patterson participated in the robbery and shooting and admitted the shooting. The case also involved delayed disclosure of a jail-cellmate's report, exclusion of an audio recording containing Patterson's denial of involvement, testimony concerning alleged prior bad acts, and prosecutorial comments about Patterson's invocation of counsel and silence.
Procedural history
Patterson was convicted in 1987 of malice murder, armed robbery, and theft by taking and received life imprisonment after the jury declined to impose the death penalty. His pro se out-of-time appeal motion was filed in 1988. In 2001, habeas relief granted him the opportunity to pursue an out-of-time appeal; after an amended motion for new trial was denied in 2008, he appealed to the Supreme Court of Georgia. The court affirmed, while Sears and Hunstein dissented from the ineffective-assistance ruling.