Adams v. State, 306 Ga. 1

In July 2016 Adams was arrested after a one-vehicle accident and charged with DUI; he declined the state blood test. The arresting trooper initiated an administrative license suspension (ALS) under OCGA §40-5-67.1.
At the ALS hearing the trooper and Adams’ counsel signed a written agreement in which the trooper would withdraw the sworn ALS report if Adams pled guilty to the DUI by a specified date; if Adams failed to plead, the trooper could seek reinstatement of the suspension without a hearing.
Adams did not plead guilty and proceeded to a jury trial on the DUI charge; the State introduced the ALS agreement (the trooper read it into the record and the agreement was admitted as an exhibit) and evidence of a 2011 DUI arrest in which Adams declined the blood test and pled to reckless driving.
Adams did not object at trial to admission of the ALS agreement when the court invited objections before opening statements; defense counsel expressly stated, “we don’t object.”
On appeal to the Court of Appeals (affirmed here), Adams argued (1) admission of the ALS agreement was erroneous and (2) admission of the 2011 arrest was unfairly prejudicial under OCGA §24-4-403. The Georgia Supreme Court granted certiorari.

Issue	Adams’ Argument	State’s Argument	Held
Admission of ALS agreement at DUI trial	Admission was improper; Flading was wrongly decided or factually distinguishable because agreement lacked explicit provision making it admissible	Agreement was admissible and any challenge is forfeited	Waiver: Adams affirmatively waived objection at trial; no plain error review; admission stands
Admissibility of 2011 DUI arrest under Rule 403	Evidence was unfairly prejudicial and should have been excluded	Trial court acted within discretion; appellate record insufficient to show error	No reversible error shown: appellant failed to include necessary portions of the record to demonstrate Rule 403 abuse
Whether Court of Appeals’ reliance on Flading controls	Flading should not control / conflicts with public policy	Flading supports admitting such stipulations	The Supreme Court did not overrule Flading here; it affirmed outcome based on waiver and record defects, not on fully endorsing Flading
Appellate record adequacy for Rule 403 review	Omission of defense opening/closing and other parts not required to review Rule 403	Missing portions (defense argument, cross, exhibits, jury charge) prevent full Rule 403 balancing on appeal	Appellant bears burden to supply record; partial record insufficient so claim fails

Flading v. State, 327 Ga. App. 346 (admitting ALS stipulation at DUI trial upheld)
Anthony v. State, 302 Ga. 546 (preservation rule for evidentiary objections; plain error framework)
State v. Kelly, 290 Ga. 29 (four‑prong plain error test)
Jones v. State, 301 Ga. 544 (Rule 403 balancing for extrinsic act evidence)
King v. State, 300 Ga. 180 (appellant bears burden to prove error from the appellate record)
Adkins v. State, 301 Ga. 153 (waiver by affirmative statement to the court)
Huff v. State, 299 Ga. 801 (factors for assessing extrinsic act evidence)
Lee v. State, 347 Ga. App. 508 (affirmative statement at trial can waive appellate challenge)