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Jonesv.The State

CourtSupreme Court of Georgia
Docket No.S17G0118
DecidedDecember 11, 2017
JudgesSupreme Court of Georgia
Tags
CriminalCriminal LawCriminal ProcedureStatutory InterpretationAppellate ProcedureReversal
Case Summary

Randall Lee Jones was convicted of bringing stolen property into Georgia and theft by conversion based on his failure to return a rented vehicle that he had driven across several states. The Court of Appeals held that the two verdicts were not mutually exclusive. The Supreme Court of Georgia rejected that conclusion after examining the theft statutes and the relationship between the two offenses. The court held that the verdicts could not both stand on the same conduct because one offense required bringing property into Georgia while the other required converting property entrusted to the defendant, and the statutory elements and theories of criminal liability were incompatible as charged in this case. The court reversed the Court of Appeals and the judgment based on the mutually exclusive verdicts.

Opinion

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