Whittaker v. Georgia
Annotate this CaseAppellant Steven Whittaker was convicted of malice murder and related crimes in connection with the 2018 stabbing death of LeBron Hankins. On appeal, Whittaker contended: (1) the evidence was insufficient to sustain his convictions for malice and felony murder; (2) the trial court committed plain error by failing to instruct the jury that Whittaker had no duty to retreat; (3) trial counsel gave constitutionally ineffective assistance in a number of ways; and (4) the trial court erred by failing to enter an order vacating the sentence for felony murder. The Georgia Supreme Court found, after review of the trial court record, the evidence was sufficient to support his malice-murder conviction, and his sufficiency challenge as to his felony-murder conviction was moot because he was not sentenced on that count. The Court also found the trial court did not err by failing to instruct the jury that Whittaker had no duty to retreat because retreat was not placed at issue. Whittaker’s counsel did not perform deficiently in any of the ways Whittaker asserts. And although the felony-murder count should have been vacated by operation of law, there was no sentencing error to correct because the error would have no actual effect on Whittaker’s sentence. So the Supreme Court affirmed Whittaker’s convictions and sentence.
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.