Sillah, Murray v. Georgia
Annotate this CaseAfter a joint trial, Darnell Sillah and Andrew Murray were convicted of malice murder for the shooting death of Paul Sampleton, Jr., as well as various other crimes. On appeal, Sillah, a juvenile at the time when Sampleton was killed, argued: (1) the evidence was insufficient to support his conviction for criminal gang activity; (2) the trial court erred by admitting his custodial statement; (3) the trial court erred by denying his motion to sever; (4) the trial court failed to consider Sillah’s “youth and attendant characteristics” before sentencing him to life in prison without the possibility of parole (“LWOP”); (5) this sentence violated the Eighth Amendment of the United States Constitution; and (6) the trial court committed other sentencing errors. Murray, proceeding pro se on appeal, appeared to argue the trial court failed to consider the merits of his motion for new trial and that the State failed to present evidence of guilt at the motion for new trial hearing. The Georgia Supreme Court agreed with Sillah that the trial court should have merged his convictions for conspiracy to commit armed robbery and conspiracy to commit burglary, so those convictions were vacated; the Court otherwise affirmed. The Court found record belied Murray’s first claim, and the State had no burden of proof at the hearing, negating the second claim. The Court affirmed Murray's convictions.
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