Goinsv.The State
Charmane Goins was convicted of malice murder in the strangling death of Lauren Taylor. After an earlier appeal, the Georgia Supreme Court remanded for findings on Goins’s speedy-trial claim. On the second appeal, the court affirmed the trial court’s rejection of that claim and its handling of other evidentiary issues. The court held that Goins did not establish prejudice from the delay and that the trial court properly excluded specific social-media evidence about the victim’s alleged conduct. Georgia’s evidence rules limited character proof about a victim to reputation or opinion rather than specific bad acts in the circumstances presented. The court left the murder conviction intact.
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