Summary
The Supreme Court of Georgia affirmed George Redding’s convictions for murder and related offenses arising from two shootings. The court held that evidence concerning a similar shooting, gang-related statements, and alleged witness intimidation was properly admitted or elicited, and that Redding failed to establish ineffective assistance of counsel. All Justices concurred.
Topics
Practice areas
Questions Presented
- Whether the evidence was sufficient to support Redding's convictions.
- Whether evidence concerning the Jura Tye shooting was sufficiently similar or connected to the charged shootings to be admissible as similar-transaction evidence.
- Whether the trial court erred by admitting a portion of a recorded witness interview referring to Redding as a gang leader.
- Whether the trial court erred by refusing to strike testimony concerning Redding's alleged gang leadership and by denying a mistrial.
- Whether trial counsel rendered ineffective assistance by failing to object to evidence of threats against witness Thornton.
- Whether trial counsel rendered ineffective assistance by eliciting testimony concerning Redding's gang affiliation.
- Whether trial counsel rendered ineffective assistance by failing to challenge the State's characterization of ballistics evidence.
Holdings
- The evidence was sufficient to enable a rational trier of fact to find Redding guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of all offenses for which he was convicted.
- The trial court did not abuse its discretion by admitting evidence of the Jura Tye shooting because the State established a proper purpose, sufficient evidence that Redding committed the independent act, and sufficient similarities and connections between the Tye shooting and the charged shootings.
- The trial court did not abuse its discretion by admitting the portion of Collins's recorded pretrial interview identifying Redding as a gang leader because the statement was relevant to impeach Collins's recantation and was admissible despite its incidental effect on Redding's character.
- The trial court did not abuse its discretion by refusing to strike Thornton's testimony concerning Redding's gang leadership or by denying a mistrial because the testimony was a direct and pertinent response to defense counsel's open-ended questioning.
- Counsel was not ineffective for failing to object to evidence that Thornton had been threatened and attacked because the evidence was admissible.
- Counsel's decision to question Thornton in a manner that elicited gang-related testimony was not deficient performance because the credibility-impeachment strategy was not so patently unreasonable that no competent attorney would have pursued it.
- Redding failed to establish ineffective assistance based on counsel's failure to cross-examine the ballistics expert about the characterization of the ammunition as rare because, even assuming deficient performance, there was no reasonable probability of a different result.
Key quotations
“In assessing the admissibility of similar transaction evidence, the proper focus is on the similarities, not the differences, between the separate act and the crimes in question.” (at 848)
“It is well established that an attempt by a third person to influence a witness not to testify or to testify falsely is relevant and may be introduced into evidence in a criminal prosecution on the issue of the defendant’s guilt where it is established that the attempt was made with the authorization of the accused.” (at 856)
“A fair assessment of attorney performance requires that every effort be made to eliminate the distorting effects of hindsight, to reconstruct the circumstances of counsel’s challenged conduct, and to evaluate the conduct from counsel’s perspective at the time.” (at 858)
Factual background
Redding was convicted of killing Ronnie Pierce on June 19, 2007, and Victor Hill on July 1, 2007, along with related aggravated-assault and firearm offenses. The State presented eyewitness identification evidence, recorded pretrial statements from witnesses who recanted at trial, ballistics evidence linking shootings involving similar foreign-made ammunition, and evidence that Redding intimidated or was connected to threats against witness Christopher Thornton. The State also introduced evidence that Redding participated in the separate shooting of Jura Tye, which the trial court admitted as similar-transaction evidence.
Procedural history
A Fulton County grand jury indicted Redding in February 2008 on 13 counts arising from the shootings of Ronnie Pierce and Victor Hill and the aggravated assault of LaShantae Teague. After a jury trial held January 25-31, 2011, Redding was convicted on all counts and sentenced to consecutive terms of life imprisonment and forty years. The trial court denied his amended motion for new trial on January 3, 2014, and Redding timely appealed. The Supreme Court of Georgia considered the appeal on the briefs and affirmed.