The Eleventh District reversed and remanded for resentencing, holding that the trial court violated the defendant’s right of allocution by repeatedly interrupting her personal statement and preventing her from reading it herself, particularly where the court then penalized her perceived lack of remorse.
The Ninth District reversed in part a partition case, holding that the trial court erred in scheduling a bench trial when a valid jury demand had been filed, while affirming the denial of multiple continuance requests and the denial of leave to amend the complaint.
The Twelfth District reversed a murder sentence that included ‘lifetime parole supervision,’ holding that no Ohio statute authorizes a trial court to impose such a condition and clarifying the distinction between imposing parole terms and notifying defendants of parole eligibility.
The Twelfth District reversed the trial court’s denial of a noncitizen defendant’s motion to withdraw his no-contest plea, holding that the court was required to apply the Strickland two-prong test when the motion was premised on counsel’s failure to advise of immigration consequences under Padilla v. Kentucky.
The Georgia Court of Appeals affirmed the trial court’s denial of a defendant’s motion to withdraw his guilty pleas, finding that plea counsel adequately informed him of recidivist sentencing consequences and parole ineligibility.
The Georgia Court of Appeals vacated a trial court custody order that granted sole custody to the mother and limited the father to daytime-only weekend visitation, finding the order lacked required statutory findings under OCGA 19-9-1 and improperly directed the father to transfer his child SSDI dependent benefit to the mother.