Ebony Smootv.The State
A Georgia jury convicted Ebony Smoot of keeping a place of prostitution and possessing less than one ounce of marijuana after police investigated online adult-service advertisements and searched her residence. The Georgia Court of Appeals reversed the prostitution conviction but affirmed the marijuana conviction. It held that the State improperly introduced neighborhood-group allegations from a search-warrant affidavit and report as supposed evidence explaining the investigation. Those hearsay statements were highly prejudicial because the prostitution case was entirely circumstantial. The court also held that testimony describing photographs and advertising offers on websites was not hearsay, and that printouts from one website were sufficiently authenticated through an officer's testimony and circumstantial evidence linking Smoot to the site. Craigslist printouts, however, lacked adequate authentication. The remaining competent evidence did not exclude the reasonable hypothesis that the residence was used for adult entertainment that did not constitute prostitution, so the evidence was insufficient. Double-jeopardy principles barred a retrial on that charge. The marijuana conviction was supported by constructive-possession evidence, and the trial court did not err in rejecting Smoot's requested jury instructions.
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