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The Statev.Debra Joan Pruiett

CourtCourt of Appeals of Georgia
Docket No.A13A1293
DecidedNovember 18, 2013
JudgesCourt of Appeals of Georgia
Tags
CriminalCriminal LawCriminal ProcedureDouble JeopardyPlea in BarStatutory InterpretationReversal
Case Summary

Debra Pruiett pleaded guilty to possessing Xanax found in her car after a July 2010 arrest. Two weeks later, prosecutors charged her with possessing Xanax, methamphetamine, clonazepam, and marijuana found in her home on the same date. The trial court granted Pruiett’s double-jeopardy plea in bar as to all four charges. The Georgia Court of Appeals affirmed in part and reversed in part. It held that the second Xanax charge was barred because the first prosecution and the later charge concerned the same drug possession and could have been joined in the original case. Georgia’s statutory procedural protections therefore prevented a second prosecution for that conduct after Pruiett’s guilty plea. The remaining charges were different because possession of the other drugs did not involve the same conduct as possession of Xanax in the car. Pruiett could not have been convicted of those offenses in the first prosecution, and the State’s knowledge of them did not require joinder when they arose from different conduct. The court therefore allowed the methamphetamine, clonazepam, and marijuana prosecutions to proceed while maintaining the bar against the second Xanax prosecution. The judgment was affirmed in part and reversed in part.

Opinion

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The Far Side
The State V. Debra Joan Pruiett — The Atlanta Gleaner