McElrath v. Georgia
Annotate this CaseIn 2017, a jury found Damian McElrath guilty but mentally ill of the felony murder and aggravated assault of his adoptive mother, Diane, whom McElrath killed by stabbing over 50 times in a single episode. Based on the same episode, McElrath was also found not guilty of the malice murder of Diane by reason of insanity. McElrath appealed, contending among other things that the jury’s verdicts were repugnant and that his conviction for felony murder had to be reversed or vacated. McElrath also appealed the trial court’s separate order that, upon his discharge from evaluation at a state mental health facility, he should be placed in the custody of the Department of Corrections. Under the specific facts of this case, the Georgia Supreme Court concluded that McElrath’s verdicts were indeed repugnant. Accordingly, the Court vacated both verdicts and remanded McElrath’s case for a new trial. The Supreme Court also vacated the trial court’s order placing McElrath in the Department of Corrections’s custody pursuant to the verdicts which now vacated.
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