Gardner v. Georgia
Annotate this CaseReggie Gardner was convicted by jury of felony murder in connection with the shooting death of Franklin Wright. Gardner appealed the denial of his motion for a new trial, contending that his trial counsel was ineffective because he failed to request a jury instruction on voluntary manslaughter. The Georgia Supreme Court determined the trial court did not err in finding that counsel’s performance was not constitutionally deficient because counsel chose to present an “all-or-nothing” defense, which was reasonable given that the evidence did not show the irresistible passion resulting from serious provocation required to support a charge on voluntary manslaughter. Therefore, judgment was affirmed.
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.