McIver v. Georgia
Annotate this CaseClaud Lee “Tex” McIver III was convicted of felony murder and other crimes arising out of the 2016 shooting death of his wife, Diane. He appealed, claiming among other things, that the trial court erred in refusing his request to charge the jury on the lesser grade of involuntary manslaughter under OCGA § 16-5-3 (b) and in allowing the State to introduce allegedly inadmissible and prejudicial evidence and make improper comments during closing argument. After review, the Georgia Supreme Court concluded the trial court erred in refusing McIver’s request to charge on the lesser grade of involuntary manslaughter, because the charge was authorized by law and some evidence supported the giving of the charge. Further, the Supreme Court concluded the failure to give the charge was not harmless error, because the Court could not say that it was highly probable that this error did not contribute to the jury’s verdicts. The Court therefore reversed McIver’s convictions for felony murder and possession of a firearm in the commission of a felony. The Court did not decide issues that were unlikely to recur if the State elected to retry McIver, but it did address certain evidentiary issues, and saw no abuse of discretion in admitting some of the challenged evidence, but other evidence lacked relevance or its probative value was substantially outweighed by the danger of unfair prejudice, so that unless the evidentiary posture changed for any retrial, that evidence should not be admitted again.
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