Stephens v. State
Annotate this CaseAppellant was convicted of incest against his step-daughter, following sexual abuse that began when the victim was five years old and continued until she was 16, when he impregnated her and took her to get an abortion. At issue was whether the trial court should give a jury instruction on prior inconsistent statements and whether the Court of Appeals erred in upholding the trial court's amendments to appellant's sentence to include special conditions of probation. The court held that the pattern jury instruction on prior consistent statements should not be given as a matter of course. Unlike some other states, Georgia admitted prior consistent statements as substantive evidence and not solely to rehabilitate a witness's trial testimony. Therefore, in this case, as in most cases, the instruction did not harm appellant and so the Court of Appeals properly affirmed the conviction. The court also held that appellant's rights were not violated by the process the trial court followed in imposing his special conditions of probation. Accordingly, the court affirmed the judgment.
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