Kennebrew v. Georgia
Annotate this CasePhillip Kennebrew brought an interlocutory appeal of the trial court’s denial of his motion to suppress certain physical evidence the State wished to introduce in prosecuting him for murder. The Georgia Supreme Court previously reversed Kennebrew’s convictions for malice murder and other crimes on the ground that he received ineffective assistance of counsel at trial, including counsel’s failure to pursue suppression of the evidence in question. When new counsel filed a motion to suppress on remand, the trial court denied the motion, finding that the evidence, obtained from two backpacks seized from the dorm room of Kennebrew’s girlfriend when he was arrested there, “would have inevitably been discovered through a lawful inventory search.” Kennebrew argued that the Supreme Court's ruling in his prior appeal was the law of the case precluding denial of his motion to suppress. Alternatively, he argued the trial court was wrong on the merits because the evidence was not admissible under an inevitable discovery theory. Whether or not the Supreme Court's prior opinion precluded the trial court from denying the motion to suppress, the Court determined the trial court’s ruling was wrong on the merits, and reversed.
Some case metadata and case summaries were written with the help of AI, which can produce inaccuracies. You should read the full case before relying on it for legal research purposes.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.