Mitchell v. Georgia
Annotate this CaseScean Mitchell appealed his convictions for malice murder and other offenses in connection with the 2017 shooting death of Calvin Clark, Jr. Mitchell argued the trial court abused its discretion in admitting evidence of other acts under OCGA § 24-4-404 (b). He also argued his trial counsel was ineffective for failing to object when the trial court instructed the jury to disregard evidence of self-defense and for failing to request a jury instruction on self-defense. The Georgia Supreme Court rejected both claims: there was no abuse of discretion in admitting the Rule 404 (b) evidence because it was relevant to the issue of intent and its probative value was not substantially outweighed by its unfairly prejudicial effect; and trial counsel was not ineffective because the self-defense claim was not supported by strong evidence and was inconsistent with the defense theory counsel had reasonably pursued instead.
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.