Kipp v. Georgia

In this case's first appearance before the Georgia Supreme Court, appellant Deanna Kipp appealed her convictions and sentences for four counts of felony murder, one count of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of cruelty to children in the first degree, one count of concealing the death of another, and two counts of making false statements in connection with the abuse and resulting death of her 18-month-old daughter, Kaylee Kipp, and the abuse of her two other minor daughters, S. K. and A. K. She contended that the jury’s verdicts of involuntary manslaughter and felony murder were mutually exclusive because “the jury may have found that she acted with both criminal intent and criminal negligence in connection with Kaylee’s death,” and that the trial court erred in sentencing her. The Court held that the verdicts were not mutually exclusive, but that because the case involved only a single homicide, the trial court erred in sentencing her on each felony murder verdict, on the involuntary manslaughter verdict, and on the aggravated assault verdict that was the underlying felony for the first felony murder count. Accordingly, the judgments of conviction were affirmed, vacated in part, and remanded for resentencing. The trial court resentenced Kipp, among other things, to a single life sentence on one of the felony murder verdicts, and she appealed. Her sole contention was that, under the rationale of "Edge v. Georgia," (414 SE2d 463) (1992)), the verdict of involuntary manslaughter precluded a judgment of conviction on any of the felony murder verdicts and that the trial court thus erred in sentencing her to life in prison for felony murder. The Supreme Court disagreed with this contention, and affirmed the trial court's sentence.